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riHE  CRUISE 

lAND  Y^CHT 


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THE 


Cruise  of  a  Land-Yacht 


BY 

SYLVESTER    BAXTER 

Illustvatrt  lui 
L.    J.    BRIDGMAN 


3 


BOSTON 

LITILE,    BROWN,    AND    COMPANY 

1891 


Copyright,  1890, 

SvLVliSll£R     BaXTBK. 


:5  58 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   I. 

TALKING    IT    OVER. 1 

CHAPTER   II. 

THE    ARIADNE.  ........  8 

CHAPTER  HI. 

UNDER    WAY. 25 

CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    FIRST    OF    THE    CRUISE    BY    DAYLIGHT.      .....  34 

CHAPTER   V. 

IN    THE    HEART    OF    THE    CONTINENT. 43 

CHAPTER    VI. 

OVER    PRAIRIES    AND    PLAINS 52 

CHAPTER    VII. 

WITH    PROW    TURNED    SOUTHWARD.      .......  67 

CHAPTER    VIII. 

ON    THE    FRONTIER,    TO    AND    FRO.  ......  82 

CHAPTER   IX. 

IN    A    FOREIGN    LAND 96 


M6GV8JJG 


CHAPTER  X. 

ACROSS  THE  TROPIC  OF  CANCER.      .     .....        105 

CHAPTER    XI. 

A    SUMMER    AFTERNOON    IN    JANUARY 119 

CHAPTER    XII. 

IN    THE    CITY    OF    THE    AZTECS 137 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

RIIIING    HORSEBACK    IN    THE    SUBURBS    OF    MEXICO 156 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

FROM    HARRY    MARSDEN    IN    MEXICO    TO    DAN    MATTHEWS    IN    BOSTON.  177 

CHAPTER   X\'. 

EXTRACTS    FROM    THE    LOC    OF    THE    ARIADNK 194 

CHAPTER    XVI. 

TREASURE-YIELDING    GUANAJUATO    AND    SAINT    LOUIS    OF 

THE  TREASURE.    ......        210 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

DOWN    AMONG    TROPICAL    MARVELS 2-22 

CHAPTER    XVIII. 

A    VISIT    TO    ANCIENT    RUINS. — -AT    TAMPUO 242 

CHAPTER    XIX. 

THE    BRIDGE    OF    GOD 257 


The  Cruisp]  of  a  Land -Yacht. 


CHAPTER   I. 


T  A  L  K  I  N  C;     IT     OVER. 

ARRY,   how   would   you   like   to  go 
off  ou  a  good  yafhting-tri])  ?  " 

It  was  Hany's  father  who 
asked  tlie  question.  They  had 
just  sat  down  to  dinner  in  their 
eosy  dining-room  on  Newl)ury 
street,  Boston :  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Marsden  and  their  son  Harry. 

Harry's  eyes  sparkled  and  his 
face  flushed  eagerly.  "  Like  to 
go  a-yachting?  There's  only  one  way  I'd  answer  a  question  like 
that,  you  know  !     But  how  —  " 

"  A  yachting  trip  at  this  time  of  year  !  "  Interposed  his  mother. 
"  Why,  what  can  you  mean  ?  " 

Mr.  Marsden  leaned  hack  and  smiled,  enjoying  the  puzzled  ex- 
pressions of  his  wife  and  son.  In  Harry's  eyes  was  to  lie  seen  a 
mingling  of  hoi)e  and  incredulity.  Harry  had  a  passion  for  the 
water,  and  he  owned  with  liis  friend  Dan  Matthews,  a  fine  cat-l»oat 
which   they    kept   at   City  Point   and   cruised   ahout   the    harhor  in 


2  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

nearly  all  summer.  But  uoav  it  was  January,  and  the  Brynhilda 
was  lying-  in  Lawley's  yard  all  covered  over  with  boards  and  canvas. 

"  Your  brother  Lemuel  was  in  town  to  see  me  at  the  office  this 
mornincr,"  said  Mr.  Marsden,  addressing  his  wife.  "  He  is  going 
Soutli  on  a  long  yachting-trip,  and  he  would  like  to  take  Harry 
along.     I  told  liun  I  would  see  what  you  thought  about  it." 

"  Well,  if  the  weather  keeps  on  like  this,  there  will  be  little  need 
of  going  South.  Yachting  Avill  be  quite  in  order  along  the  New 
England  coast  and  I  wonder  Harry  and  Dan  haven't  put  the  Bryn- 
hilda into  commission  before  this,"  said  Mrs.  Marsden  laughingly, 
and  she  looked  toward  the  open  window  at  the  end  of  the  room. 
The  air  was  soft  and  warm  outside,  and  since  the  beginning  of  what 
ought  to  be  winter  there  had  been  scarcely  any  snow  or  ice. 

"  Uncle  Lem  is  a  white  man  !  "  exclaimed  Harry,  enthusiastically. 

"  I  shoidd  hope  so,"  remarked  Mrs.  Marsden,  seriously.  "  He  is 
your  mother's  own  brother  !  " 

Mr.  Marsden  laughed.  "Harry  picked  that  up  from  Eliot. 
'A  white  man  '  is  his  pet  designation  for  any  person  whom  he  ad- 
mii'es." 

••  Yes,  and  the  other  day  when  I  told  him  what  Mrs.  Nelson 
had  (lone  for  the  manual  training  school  at  the  North  End  he  said 
xlic  was  a  regular  wliitc  man  !  "  said  Harry. 

"  Well,  Harry  is  a  good  sailor,  and  Lemuel  will  find  him  very 
useful  about  the  yacht,"  remarked  his  mother. 

"■  I  only  wish  Dan  were  going,  too,"  said  Harry. 

"  Dan  will  have  to  be  content  with  your  letters  this  time."  re- 
plied his  father.      "  By  the  way,  Eliot  is  going  along,  tiuiugli." 

"  Good  cnoiiL-h  !  ■■  .M-icd  Ilarrv.      ••  Hut  Iic'll  lu'  awfully  seasick," 


THK    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  6 

he  reflected,  remembering-  his  ecmsin's  dismal  ('.\])(Micii(e  whei!  he 
and  Dan  took  liim  down  to  Marhlehcad  one  day  in  the  Brvnliikla. 

"  Oh  !  I'm  sure  lie  won't  i)e  tliis  trip,"  said  Mi.  .Mars(h"n,  and 
he  smiled  again,  mysteriously. 

"Why,  if  Uncle  Lem  is  going  to  the  West  Tn.lies  — or  is  it 
Bermuda,  perhaps? — Ehot  would  get  turned  inside  out  before  we 
got  there  !  "  excdainied  Harry. 

"The  West  Indies?"  eried  Mrs.  Marsden  in  alarm.  "  Mereiful 
heavens,  I  forgot  all  about  Cape  Hatteras !  You'd  have  to  weather 
it  in  midwinter  and  the  chances  are  you'd  all  get  wrecked.  It's  bad 
enough  for  steamers,  but  in  a  yacht  —  or  is  it  a  steam-yacht  that 
Lemuel  has  now?     I  never  heard  anything  about  it  before." 

"Yes,  I  suppose  it  might  be  called  a  steam-yacht,"  replied  her 
husband.  "  Steam  is  the  motive  power.  It's  a  brand  new  craft, 
just  built  specially  to  his  order." 

"  Well,  I'm  sorry,  but  if  he's  going  to  the  West  Indies  he  must 
pass  Hatteras,  and  for  all  I'm  accustomed  to  have  Harry  on  the 
water  all  summer,  it  would  worry  me  nearly  to  death  to  think  of  him 
exposed  to  the  danger  of  the  perpetual  winter  storms  that  rage  in 
that  region.  No,  I  can  never  consent  to  Harry's  going,  ami  we 
may  as  well  give  up  thinkhig  of  it  Hrst  as  last.  For  mv  part  I 
don't  see  what  ever  could  have  jiut  the  idea  into  Lemuel's  lu^ul. 
He  is  always  so  sensible.  But  to  run  a  risk  like  that !  No,  Harrv, 
you  can't  go  !  " 

Harry's  face  grew  long.  "  But,  he  is  not  going  to  the  West 
Indies,  nor  Bermuda,  nor  past  Hatteras,"  said  his  father.  "He  is 
going  to  Mexico." 

Harry  brightened  up  instantly  on  perceiving  ids  fatiier's  reassui- 


4.  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

ing-  Umt,  l)nt  did  not  yet  recover  by  a  point  or  two,  to  speak  nauti- 
cally,  the  full  confidence  of  his  expectation,  as  he  asked  doubtfully  : 
"  But  how  could  he  get  to  Mexico  without  going  first  to  the  West 
Indies,  or  even  past  Hatteras  ?  " 

"  Why,  simply  because  he  is  not  going  by  sea  at  all ;  he  is  going 
by  land !  " 

"By  land?  But  you  said  it  was  a  yachting  trip  !  "'  said  Harry, 
more  puzzled  than  ever. 

"  And  you  just  spoke  of  the  yacht,  too,"  added  Mrs.  Marsden. 
"  I'm  sure  I  don't  understand  what  you  can  mean  !  " 

"  To  be  sure  I  did  !  But  it  is  a  land-yacht."  And  Mr.  Marsden 
leaned  back  and  laughed  heartily. 

"  A  land-yacht?  Who  ever  heard  of  such  a  tiling '.'  "  exclaimed 
his  wife,  still  mystified. 

Harry  had  now  fully  recovered  the  joyful  mood  that  his  father 
had  at  first  roused  in  bun  and  his  bright  young  eyes  were  dancing 
with  excitement  and  the  keenest  curiosity.  "  But  what  kind  of  a 
thing  is  a  land-yacht,  father  ?  I  thought  I  was  well  posted  in  yacht- 
ing, but  this  is  the  first  time  I  ever  heard  of  that  sort  of  a  craft !  " 

"You  never  did?  Why,  the  woods  are  full  of  Via!  The 
woods,  and  plains,  and  mountams,  and  railroad  yards  !  The  fieet  of 
land-yachts  in  this  country  is  something   enormous." 

"  Oh  I  you  mean  a  railroad  car  !  "  said  the  boy. 

"  Yes,  a  private  car." 

"  But  what  do  you  mean  by  calling  such  a  thing  a  yacht  ? " 
asked  Mrs.  Marsden.  "  I  thought  a  yacht  was  sonu>thing  tliat  be- 
longed only  in  the  wnUn;  like  a  fish.  A  laiid-lisli  would  lie  a  (pieer 
sort  of  thing  in  natural  history  !  ' 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    I.AND-YAOHT.  I) 

"1  don't  know  iil)out  that,"  replied  her  Imshand.  "Haven't 
you  ever  heard  al)oiit  that  strange  kind  of  fish  in  Brazilian  rivers 
that,  at  certain  seasons  comes  out  of  the  water,  climbs  trees,  and 
builds  its  nest  in  them?  Just  as  there  are  sea-molluscs  and  land- 
molluscs,  sea-crustaceans  and  land-crustaceans,  so  the  genus  Yavld 
has  its  water-species  and  land-species  There's  an  ice-yacht  for 
instance  !  " 

•'  But  an  ice-yacht  has  a  inast  and  sails,  "  remarked  Harry. 

"  Neither  a  mast  nor  sails  are  essentials  for  a  yacht,  as  you  well 
know,"  explained  his  father.  "  There  are  steam-yachts  that  have 
neither.  A  yacht  is  a  craft  designed  for  pleasiu'e,  that  cruises  about 
wherever  its  owner  or  navigator  chooses,  stopping  or  gf)ing  from 
place  to  jjlace  to  suit  his  will.  A  private  car  on  a  railroad  answers 
to  that  description,  and  is,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  yacht.  It 
makes  no  difference  whether  a  yacht  is  on  wheels,  and  runs  on  a 
track,  or  has  a  keel  and  floats  in  the  water  Some  time  in  the  next 
century,  or  perhaps  before  the  present  one  expires,  if  Mr.  De  Bausset 
succeeds  in  getting  anybody  to  take  hold  of  his  wonderful  inven- 
tion, probably  the  favorite  form  of  pleasure-navigation  vnW.  be  yacht- 
ing in  the  air." 

"I  understand  tiow,"  said  his  wife,  "and  for  my  part  1  would 
prefer  a  land-yacht  to  a  sea  one.  Now  tell  luf  about  L'-muel's 
plans." 

"  As  I  was  saying,  he  has  just  had  a  land-yacht,  or  private  car, 
built.  It  was  designed  to  suit  his  ideas,  and  according  to  what  he 
tells  me  aboat  it,  it  must  be  a  l)e:iuty.  He  is  going  to  Mexico  on 
his  first  trip  and  inteads  to  s]);'nd  tiie  winter  there.  ^'ou  know  he 
dislikes  our  nortiiern  winter  exceedin<>lv.      Madelaine   is  <)-oin<>'   with 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


liim  and  the  rest  of  the  party  will  be  made  up  of  young-  folks ; 
Florence,  of  course  —  and  Mabel  Sampson  has  been  invited,  so  that 
Florence  will  Ikuc  a  companion  near  her  own  age ;  Eliot  Sampson 
goes  along,  as  you  have  already  heard,  and  finally  there  comes 
Harry,  if  we  decide  that  he  can  g'<>-  ' 

Harry  turned  towards  his  mother  with  a  look  so  imjjloring  that 
she  laughed  as  she  said,  "  Well,  now  that  Hatteras  is  out  of  the 
way  —  "  Glancmg  at  her  son's  pale  face  she  remembered  what  a 
picture  of  youthful  health  he  had  been  at  the  end  of  the  j)revious 
summer,  when  he  began  his  studies  again,  brown  as  an  Indian,  lithe 
and  strong  as  a  colt.  —  "  Yon  know  the  Doctor  has  been  saying 
that  it  would  not  do  for  him  to  study  any  more  this  year  —  that  is, 
n(jt  until  the  fall  term  begins  —  and  that  a  change  of  climate  wouhl 
be  the  best  thing  for  him.  And  we  were  talking  of  sending  him 
to  Florida.     So  tliis  is  really  just  the  opportunity." 

Harry  Marsden  was  seventeen  years  old.  He  Avas  in  what  was 
to  have  been  liis  last  year  in  the  English  High  School  and  the  next 
aiitmun  he  was  to  enter  the  Institute  of  Technology.  But  this  ill- 
ness had  disarranged  these  plans.  Harry's  attack  of  the  "  Grippe," 
although  it  had  not  seemed  severe  at  the  thne,  had  left  him  in  such 
a  condition  that  he  could  not  apply  himself  to  study  \\'ithout  serious 
exhaustion.  He  had  been  chafing  inider  this  restraint  and  worrying 
Ijecause  the  other  boys  would  pass  him  by,  a  year  ahead.  There 
was  one  consolation  though,  enough  of  ins  coiiipanions  were  "  in  the 
same  boat  "  to  assure  him  against  lonesonieuess,  and  some  of  tiie  best 
lioys  in  the  class  ahead  had  also  been  set  ])ack  by  the  e|)i(leinic.  so 
that  the  next  year  they  wouhl,  at  least,  not  be  any  farther  aliead  of 
him.       Dan,    however,  had  escaped  ami    would    enter   the    Instinte 


THE    CRUISE    OK    A    LAND-YACHT.  I 

ahead  of  him.  That  was  hard,  when  they  had  so  long  been  phm- 
ning-  what  they  woukl  do  together  there,  but  then  he  knew  that  Dan 
would  not  phmie  hmiself  on  that  account,  and  Ilariv  consoh'd  him- 
self that  he  could  look  to  his  friend  to  "  show  him  the  ropes  "  wlicn 
he  got  there  hmiself.  And  now  this  chance  for  travel  in  a  far  and 
strange  country  had  come  and  Harry  began  to  be  glad  that  he  had 
had  the  ''  Grippe  "  after  all ;  what  he  would  learn  would  l)e  worth 
giving  a  year  of  school  for,  he  thought. 

"  Why  Harry,  you  look  so  well  at  this  moment  that  I  don't  be- 
Keve  there  is  any  need  of  going  away  for  your  health  at  all,"  re- 
marked his  father,  tempted  to  tease  hun  a  bit.  "  You  may  as  wiJl 
go  back  to  school  to-morrow."  He  smiled  at  the  shade  of  dismay 
that  came  over  the  boy's  face  and  continued,  "  But  I  think  that  if 
we  decided  that  way  the  disappointment  miglit  set  you  back  so  that 
we  would  have  to  let  you  go  after  all." 

"  But  are  n't  you  a  bit  disappointed,  Harry,  that  it  is  to  be  a 
cruise  in  a  land-yacht,  instead  of  by  sea  ?  "  asked  his  mother. 

"  Not  at  all,"  he  responded.  "  It  's  about  time  I  saw  something 
more  of  the  land.  You  know  I  have  never  been  beyond  New  York 
yet.     The  West  Indies  will  keep  a  while." 

So  it  was  settled  that  Harry  should  go.  "  When  does  Lemuel's 
yacht  saU?  —  or  roll  —  I  suppose  I  ought  to  say,"  asked  JNIrs. 
Marsden. 

"  Let's  see.  To-day  is  Saturday.  A  week  from  next  Tuesday, 
which  will  make  it  January  4 ;  from  the  New  York  &  New  Eng- 
land station  \\'ith  the  Washington  Express. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE     ARIADNE, 


H 


fARRY    MARSDEN'S    uncle,    Mr. 
Lemuel    Brinkley,    was    a    very 
wealthy    gentleman.       He     had 
Avithdi-awn    from    active    business 
pursuits  on  reaching  middle  life, 
and  very  sensibly  had  determmed 
to  make  the  most  of  his  remain- 
ing years  in  following   the   lines 
of  study  and  observation  that  most 
interested  him,  besides  making  the 
best  use  of  his  money  in   behalf  of  his  fellow  men  that  his  kmdlv 
heart  might  prompt  and  his  sagacious  mind  suggest.     He  was  very 
fond  of   travel  and  a  favorite  project  of  his  was  to  see  all  the  inter- 
esting portions  of  North  America  that  he  could   ivacli  convcniciitlv 
by  railway.      To  this  end  he  had  had    his  new  car  built.      "  In  that 
way  T   can   travel  under  tlic   most    favorable    couditidiis."  he  sai<l. 
"One    may    stop  anywhere  he  chooses,  and  if  there  chances  to  be 
anything  that  particularly  interests  hhii,  and   the   place  has  no  ac- 
connnodations  for  travelers,  he  can  remain   there  in   conifoi-t  so  long 
as  he  wishes  and  see  everything  at  leisure.     To  active  youtli  a  bttlc 
hardship,  discomfort  and  fatigue  give  to  travel  the  zest  of  iuKcuturc 


THE    CKUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  V 

and  soiiu'tiiiK's  increase  the  enjo>ineiit.  But  at  my  age,  however,  I 
Had  that  thi-  more  comfortable  the  conditions  under  which  1  see 
things,  and  the  less  I  am  distracted  by  such  annoyances  as  moscjuitoes, 
flies,  fleas,  etc.,  uucomfV)rtable  beds  and  badly-cooked,  indigestible 
food,  the  more  I  enjoy  what  I  see  and  the  more  I   learn  from  it." 

Mr.  Brinkley  had  been  to  Mexico  once  before  with  a  party  of 
railway  directors  but  the  most  of  them  had  been  in  so  gi-eat  a  hurry 
to  get  back  to  their  business  that  he  had  l)een  able  to  get  but  tan- 
taUzing  glimpses  of  the  country,  and  so  he  determined  to  go  again 
at  the  first  good  opportunity  and  enjoy  it  more  thoroughly-  In  his 
various  journeys  to  different  parts  of  the  country,  Mr.  Brinkley  had 
often  made  use  of  private  cars.  He  had  been  intending  to  buy  one, 
but  his  experience  had  shown  huu  that  certain  improvements  might 
be  made  in  design  and  construction  that  would  materially  increase 
comfort  while  traveling.  He  therefore  decided  to  have  a  car  budt 
for  himself  according  to  his  own  ideas. 

The  party  which  he  made  up  for  the  first  voyage  was  very  pleas- 
antly composed.  Mrs.  Brinkley  was  as  fond  of  travel  as  he  was. 
His  daughter  Florence,  recently  through  school,  was  going  along 
for  her  first  taste  of  extended  travel.  His  nephew,  Ehot  Sampson, 
was  a  young  civil  engineer,  about  27  years  old,  a  graduate  of  the 
Institute  of  Technology,  and  had  spent  somethmg  Hke  three  years 
m  Mexico  engaged  in  railroad  work.  He  was  familiar  with  the 
coimtry  and  the  Spanish  language.  His  knowledge  of  the  points  of 
interest,  of  the  things  most  worth  seeing  and  of  the  best  means  of 
seeing  them,  would  make  him  an  invalual)le  member  of  the  party. 
EHot's  sister,  Mabel,  was  only  a  year  or  two  older  than  Florence, 
and  had  traveled  extensively,  both  in  Europe  and  in  our  own   coun- 


10  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAXD-YACHT. 

try.  Harry  and  Florence  would  thus  each  have  sympathetic  coni- 
pani(jns.  Mr.  Brinkley  was  deUghted  with  the  idea  that  the  young 
l)eo])le  were  all  going.  He  enjoyed  their  enjoyment  of  things,  as 
much  as  he  did  the  seeing  of  the  same  things  himself.  Their 
youthful  enthusiasm,  their  hearty  appreciation  of  novelties,  and  their 
lun-eserved  expressions  of  interest  and  enthusiasm,  gave  him  the 
feeling  that  he  himself  was  also  looking  at  the  world  with  young 
eyes. 

Harry  had  a  strong  liking  for  his  cousin  Eliot,  and  the  two 
-were  together  a  large  portion  of  the  time  during  the  days  before  the 
date  of  their  departure,  helping  each  other  m  theii-  preparations. 
Most  of  the  help,  to  be  sure,  was  rendered  by  Ehot,  who  advised 
Harry  what  he  had  better  take  or  not  take.  "  You  won  't  need 
any  umbrella,  for  one  thing,  "  said  he,  "  foi-  we  shan  't  be  trouliled 
by  any  rain  in  that  country.  We  may  as  well  take  our  heavy  over- 
coats to  wear  the  first  three  or  four  days  if  it  happens  to  be  cold 
weather  when  we  want  to  get  off  the  train  and  take  a  constitutional. 
l)ut  at  the  boundary  we  had  better  send  them  back  by  express. 
You  will  want  both  thick  clothing  and  thin  clothing,  for  in  Mexico 
it  is  possible  to  change  climate  three  or  four  times  in  the  course  of 
a  day's  journey  by  rail,  according  to  tlu'  changes  in  our  height 
above  the  sea-level.  Sometiuu's  we  may  start  olV  in  the  nionnng 
shivering  in  our  thick  clothes,  with  zarapcs  aliout  nur  sluiuldiTs. 
and  inside  of  a  couple  o!  hours  we  may  be  wisliiug  we  liad  uotliiug 
on  but  gossamer  undershirts!  Take  along  a  coujilc  of  suits  of  old 
clothes,  and  don 't  wear  any  starched  shirts  on  the  train.  Vou  wdi 
find  soft  flannel  shirts  most  comfortable  under  ordinary  con<litions. 
and  silk  or  cheviot  ones  in  the  hot  climates." 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  11 

The  day  set  for  going'  came  at  last,  althoiigli  it  seemed  to  Harry 
that  it  never  would  come.  Harry  liad  Ix'cn  anxious  to  see  "  the 
yacht,"  as  they  all  now  called  it,  Imt  It  did  not  arrive  from  Spring- 
field until  two  days  before,  and  then  he  was  too  busy  with  his  final 
preparations  to  spend  any  time  in  going  to  the  railroad  yard,  where 
they  were  shipping  the  supplies  for  the  journey  and  putting  on  the 
finishing  touches.  Harry  drove  to  the  station  with  his  father  and 
mother,  and  Dan  also  went  along  to  see  hun  off.  As  they  passed 
into  the  train-house  Harry's  eyes  were  on  the  alert.  "  There  she 
is  !  "  he  shouted,  pointing  to  the  car  in  the  rear  of  the  Pullman 
sleepers. 


"  Why,  how  queer  she  looks  !  "  cried  Dan. 

Indeed,  it  was  a  most  remarkable-looking  car.  Everybody  in 
passing  stopjied  to  look  at  it.  A  group  of  railroad  men  was  stand- 
ing by.  They  were  inspecting  it  -svith  critical  eyes  and  pointing  out 
to  each  other  various  things  that  struck  them  as  decidedly  new  de- 
partures. 

The  feature  that  first  struck  one  on  approaching  was  its  color,  a 
soft  creamy  white.  Harry  then  noted  the  large  plate-glass  Avindows 
that  extended  nearly  to  the  floor  in  the  rear  end  of  the  car,  while 
the  door  itself  was  filled  with  a  large  single  sheet  of  plate-glass  in 


12  THE    CKUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

the  same  way.  This  feature  is  coinmoii  to  nearly  all  ears  of  the 
kind,  and  is  designed  to  afford  good  opportunities  for  ohservation  to 
those  sitting  within.  The  window-curtains  hotli  at  the  end  and  the 
sides  were  all  down,  but  the  door  was  ajar  and  showed  that  tlie  in- 
terior was  brilliantly  lighted.  Mr.  Brinkley  was  standing  on  the 
car-platform  with  Eliot.  He  greeted  them  heartily  and  took  them 
inside,  where  they  found  the  ladies  of  the  party  already  comfortably 
at  home  and  chatting  mth  some  friends  who  had  come  to  bid  them 
good  bye.  A  good-looking  young  mulatto  standing  by  took  Harry's 
band-satchel  and  was  about  to  help  him  off  Avith  his  overcoat  when 
his  uncle  Lemuel  said  :  "  Wait  a  bit !  I  bebeve  this  is  your  famous 
fellow  yachtsman,  Dan,  isn't  it  ?  Well,  he  must  be  wanting  to  see 
what  kind  of  a  craft  a  land-yacht  is,  and  we  '11  look  her  over  to- 
gether, beginning  outside  in  regular  ship  fashion.  So  keep  on  your 
overcoat,  Harry,  for  two  or  three  minutes.  We  shall  have  plenty 
of  time  before  we  start ;  it  is  almost  half  an  hour  yet,  and  so  we  can 
give  Dan  a  pretty  good  idea  of  her.  " 

Mr.  Brinkley  seemed  as  delighted  as  a  boy  with  the  Ariadne,  as 
she  was  called.  Harry  and  Dan  themselves  could  have  hardly  been 
more  enthusiastic  over  the  Brynhilda  when  they  first  had  her.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Marsden  remained  with  the  ladies,  wiiile  ^Ir.  Brinkley 
went  outside  with  Eliot,  Dan  and  Harry. 

The  white  sides  of  the  Ariadne  made  a  marked  contrast  with  the 
dark  Pullman  just  ahead.  "  She  Avill  attract  enough  attention  by 
her  color  alone,"  exclaimed  Harry.  "  I  heard  one  of  those  railroad 
men  say,  as  I  came  along,  "  She  's  a  regular  white  blackbird  !  " 
What  did  you  paint  her  white  for.  Uncle  Lemuel?" 

"  For  comfort,"  was  the  reply.    "  I  have  no  desu-e  to  be  conspic- 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  13 

nous,  but  I  am  Avilling  to  suffer  that  penalty  for  the  sake  of  setting 
an  example  that  ought  to  be  followed.  White  is  the  ])roper  color 
for  a  passenger  car,  especially  one  designed  for  use  in  a  warm  coun- 
trv.  If  Mr.  Pullman  would  only  make  that  his  standard  color,  in- 
stead of  the  near  approach  to  black  that  he  has  made  the  fashion, 
he  would  earn  the  thanks  of  thousands  of  travelers  who  are  now 
half  fried  in  consequence.  Now,  being  good  Yankee  boys,  I  think 
you  and  Dan  can  guess  the  reason  why  white  is  a  better  color  than 
black." 

"  Because  black  absorbs  heat  and  white  reflects  it,  isn't  it  ?  "  said 
Harry. 

"  Why,  that  is  the  reason  they  paint  the  new  steel  cruisers  white 
instead  of  black !  "  exclaimed  Dan.  "  A  white  man-of-war  would 
once  have  been  thought  ridiculous,  but  now  it  is  a  regulation  color 
in  the  navy." 

"  Yes,  and  the  same  ground  holds  good  for  a  land-craft  as  for  a 
water-craft,"  added  Mr.  Brinkley.  "  In  Mexico  particidarly,  and  in 
our  own  summer  weather,  the  difference  between  black  and  white 
will  make  a  difference  of  several  degrees  inside  a  car.  Do  you 
know  that  if  you  take  a  box  and  line  it  wth  black  and  put  a  sheet 
of  glass  over  it,  and  then  put  it  where  the  summer  sun  will  shine  in- 
to it,  you  can  cook  eggs  in  it  or  heat  water  scalding  hot?  Well,  you 
produce  a  like  effect  inside  a  car  by  painting  it  dark." 

"I  like  the  idea  of  having  the  car  plain  outside,"  remarked  Kliot. 
"  That  is  a  sensible  fashion  that  is  s])reading.  Many  of  the  rail- 
roads have  adopted  it,  and  have  no  more  ornamental  work  on  the 
outside  of  their  cars  than  you  liave  on  this." 

"Anything    that    is    made    what    is    called    ornamental    for    mere 


14  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

show,  like  the  elaborate  striping  and  scroll-work  so  long  customary 
on  the  outside  of  passenger  cars,  is  in  bad  taste,  and  the  money 
spent  in  doing  it  is  wasted,"  said  his  uncle.  "  It  does  not  promote 
in  the  least  the  comfort  or  convenience  of  the  passengers,  and  the 
cost  of  doing  it  had  better  be  laid  out  on  the  inside.  It  is  a  relic  of 
the  stage-coaches  out  of  which  railway  coaches  were  developed,  and 
its  only  use  is  to  make  ignorant  people  stare  in  open-mouthed  won- 
der, as  they  do  at  circus-wagons." 

"  What  a  queer  roof !  "  observed  Harry ;  "  It  looks  mighty 
pretty,  though  !  " 

"  That  is  another  new  departiire  for  the  same  reason  —  com- 
fort," explained  Mr.  Brinkley.  "  I  have  buUt  the  car  with  a  double 
roof.  You  see  the  row  of  little  windows  above,  along  the  side,  and 
the  spaces  between  them  filled  in  with  open-work  ?  The  regular  roof 
is  of  the  Mann  pattern,  as  they  call  it,  instead  of  the  monitor. 
The  curve  from  side  to  side  gives  the  largest  amount  of  aii--space  in 
the  interior,  as  well  as  the  simplest  construction  and  finest  appeai-- 
ance.  The  rows  of  dormer  wuidows  above,  like  those  in  the  Boston 
&  Albany  drawing-room  cars  on  the  New  York  Lunited,  light  the 
upper  part  of  the  car  as  in  the  ordinary  monitor.  Over  that  is  a 
second  roof,  and  the  air  circulating  freely  between,  the  heat  from 
the  sun  does  not  beat  down  into  the  interior  of  the  car.  Tliat  will 
also  make  a  great  addition  to  comfort  in  hot  weather.  Now  let  us 
step  inside. 

"  I  think  yoin-  Aunt  Maddie  must  be  sliowing  the  others  around 
ahead  of  us,"  said  he  as  they  entered  and  found  the  iikhii  empty. 
"  1  hear  tlieir  voices  out  in  tlie  otlu-r  part  sonuwherc.  Tliis  vdom 
here  in  the  rear  of  tlie  car  is  our  parlor.      Here  we  sliall   sit    and  svi' 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


15 


the  country  as  we  speed  through  it,  Avith  fine  outlooks  through  the 
large  Avindows  on  either  side  and  behind  us.  Or  when  the  weather 
is  all  right,  as  it  almost  always  is  in  Mexico,  we  can  go  out  on  tlic 
rear  platform  and  get  a  still  more  extensive  view.  When  anybody 
wants  to  be  alone,  they  can  withdraw  to  their  stateroom  ;  that  is, 
those  of  us  who  have  staterooms,"  he  added,  lookmg  at  Eliot  and 
Harry  and  laughing.  "  You  two  boys  can  have  the  privilege  of  the 
dining-room  for  that  purpose."  Although  Eliot  was  twenty-seven 
years  old,  Mr.  Brinkley  always  called  him  a  boy,  as  well  as  Harry. 

The  room  was  a  A-ery  handsome  one,  but  simple  and  quiet  in  as- 
pect ;  there  was  not  a  particle  of  gaudiness  or  glitter  about  it. 
Everything  looked  invitingly  comff)rtab]e.  The  sides  and  graceful- 
ly curved  ceiling  were  finished  in  light  wood.  At  the  end  opposite 
the  door  was  a  desk,  with  a  compact  arrangement  of  an  attractively 
filled  book-c'ase  above,  together  Avith  shelves  covered  with  magazines 
and  newspapers.  Along  the  sides  were  two  sofas  and  several  brt)ad 
easy-chairs.  In  a  panel  between  two  windows  on  one  side  Avas  a 
beautiful  water-ccdor  picture,  and  a  corresponding  space  on  the  o[t- 
posite  side  Avas  occupied  by  an  equally  beautiful  etching.  From  the 
centre  of  the  ceiling  there  hung  a  cluster  of  brilliant  electric  lights ; 
there  Avas  also  an  elestric  light  on  a  bracket  on  either  side  of  the 
desk,  shaded  to  keep  the  glare  from  the  eyes,  and  two  siniilai'  lights 
forming  moveable  brackets  on  either  side,  so  that  they  could  be 
placed  in  A-arious  positions  for  convenience  in  reading.  Out  on  the 
platform  there  aams  also  an  cleitric  light  overhead  and  a  red  light 
on  each  side.  "'This  car  will  usually  I)e  in  tlic  rear  of  the  train 
and  so  I  took  care  to  have  red  electric  lights  for  the  purpose,  so  that 
we  should  not  be  bothered  by  the  disagreeable  smell  of  kerosene 


10  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

lanterns.  Yon  piobaljlv  notice  liow  li^lit  and  clieerfnl  this  room 
appears.  That  is  on  aeeount  of  the  nse  of  light-eolored  wood  in  the 
finish.  Dark  -wood  often  k)oks  very  rich  and  ag-reealtle,  but  a  room 
.so  furnished  requires  jjerhaps  twice  as  much  candle-power,  if  not 
more,  to  illuminate  it  as  effectively  as  it  would  l)e  with  li<;lit  finish. 
Now  we  will  go  on  and  see  the  rest  of  our  craft.  Here  is  our  state- 
room—  your  Aunt's  and  mine  —  adjoining-  the  parlor." 

Passing  through  a  door  to  the  right  of  the  desk,  they  found 
themselves  in  a  snug  compartment,  with  beds  on  either  side  made 
up  ready  for  the  night.  The  room  was  furnished  in  cheerful  yellow 
tints,  with  which  the  hangings  harmonized.  An  open  door  showed 
a  room  of  the  same  size  adjoining,  beyond,  and  smiilar  in  appeai-- 
ance,  with  the  exception  that  it  was  furnished  in  a  pale  rose-color. 
"  Couleur  de  rose"  said  Mr.  Brinkley ;  "  that  is  the  way  the  young- 
folks  are  expected  to  see  things !  This  room  belongs  to  the  girls, 
YOU  know.  The  door  here  between  mil  be  closed  for  the  trip,  but 
the  two  rooms  are  made  to  communicate  for  convenience  when  re- 
quired." 

Harry  noticed  that  sofas  occupied  the  places  corresponduig  to 
those  where  the  beds  were  in  the  first  room.  "  Sofas  by  day,  beds 
by  night,"  explained  his  uncle.  "  You  see  how  much  larger  it 
makes  this  room  look?  Iliad  the  beds  made  up  in  our  room  so 
that  visitors  might  see  just  how  things  were.  These  two  cU'ctric- 
lights  in  each  room  you  notice  are  moveable  and  can  lie  attached  to 
various  places  on  the  walls,  like  those  in  the  jjarlor  at  the  side.  For 
instance,  if  anybody  has  the  i)ernicious  habit  of  iculing  in  l)ed  they 
can  gratify  it  with  a  beautiful  strong-  light,  close  to  the  head,  and 
shaded,  without  any  heat  to  speak  of  and  no  danger  of  setting  them- 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LANO-YAfHT.  17 

selves  on  fire.  Seriously  speaking,  what  a  convenience  for  an  in- 
valid !  And  you  can  have  a  light  in  any  instant  in  the  night  by 
just  reaching  out  your  hand.  I  tell  you  tliis  is  an  age  worth  living 
in  !  "  he  exclaimed  enthusiastically. 

"  Now  see  what  a  nice  toilet-room  this  is,"  Mr.  Briiiklcy  went 
on.  "Each  stateroon  has  one  annexed.  The  two  lioys  almost 
jumped  on  seeing  an  electric  light  flash  up  inside  on  opening  the 
door,  and  Eliot  laughed :  "  Ah,  you  got  that  idea  from  London,  I 
see  !  I  saw  it  at  the  Metropole  last  year.  We  can  learn  a  thing  or 
two  the  other  side  of  the  water,  can  't  wo  ?  in  exchange  for  what  we 
teach  them !" 

"■  How  in  the  world  is  that  done  ? "  marveled  Dan,  with  eyes 
still  astonished. 

"  Opening  the  door  to  go  in  completes  the  circuit  and  turns  on 
the  light,"  explained  Eliot;  the  next  time  the  door  is  opened  —  that 
is,  to  come  out  —  it  breaks  the  circuit  and  the  light  is  turned  off." 

"  Here  we  have  an  extra  light  the  other  side  of  the  looking-glass 
for  use  when  needed.  Now  just  see  what  a  fine  stream  of  water, 
either  hot  or  cold,  runs  from  these  taps  without  having  to  work  a 
pimip,  as  on  most  cars.  I  will  show  you  how  that  is  done  later. 
It  is  an  idea  from  some  of  the  new  Pullmans.  Now  let  us  proceed 
'  amidships.'  " 

They  went  back  into  the  parlor  and  forward  througli  a  narrow 
passage-way  just  outside  the  two  staterooms.  This  passage-way 
widened  out  considerably  at  its  farther  end  and  curved  to  the  right,  to 
make  place  for  a  compartment  opposite  the  toilet-annex  of  the  second 
state-room.     The  door  of  this  was  marked  :  "  Toilet  and  Bathroom." 

"  Ah,  here  is  something  for  you,  l)oys !  "  said   Mr.  Brinkley. 


18  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

As  he  opened  the  door  there  was  the  same  arrangement  of 
electric-lights  as  in  the  toilet-rooms.  It  was  a  room  about  the  same 
width  as  the  latter,  but  several  feet  longer.  It  was  entirely  lined 
with  tUes  in  a  Moorish  style,  sides,  floor  and  ceiling ;  even  the  in- 
side of  the  door  was  tile  covered.  The  ceiling  was  arched  both 
from  sides  and  ends,  making  a  sort  of  elongated  dome.  The  glazed 
surface  brightly  reflected  the  electric-light  in  the  centre.  At  the 
farther  end  was  a  large  panel  in  relief,  a  beautiful  group  of  boys 
having  a  merry  time  in  the  water.  "  Chelsea  tiles !  "  exclaimed 
Eliot.  "  Jack  Low  has  fairly  outdone  hunself  here.  And  that 
panel  is  one  of  Osborne's  best  works  !  " 

"  America  can  beat  the  world  in  tiles,  anyhow !  "  added  ^Ir. 
Brinkley. 

"  Bvit  where  is  the  bath-tub  ?  "  asked  Harry. 

At  one  end  of  the  room  were  the  toilet  arrangements,  but  the 
rest  of  the  space  was  empty. 

"  No  wonder  you  ask,"  laughed  his  uncle.  "  But  on  a  car  like 
this  we  have  to  make  things  com])act  and  save  all  the  room  we 
can  !  " 

"  Save  room  !  "  called  Dan,  looking  at  the  empty  space  ;   why —  " 

"  Now  all  stand  close  as  jiossible  at  this  end,  and  I  will  show 
you."  said  Mr.  Brinkley.  He  turned  a  little  wheel  projecting  troiu 
the  wall  and  the  greater  jiart  of  the  Hoor  rose  up.  dividing  in  the 
middle  and  folding  back  against  the  wall  on  either  side.  Beneath 
was  a  large  l)ath,  lined  with  white  tiles. 

"What  a  magnificent  l)ath  !  That  beats  anything  yet!"  and 
Harry  nearly  shouted  witii  delight.  "  Why,  1  could  ahuost  s\\  iiii  in 
that!"    he  said. 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  19 

"  We  shall  find  this  one  of  the  most  comfortable  features  of  all 
on  a  journey  like  ours,"  observed  his  uncle. 

"  A  bath  sunk  in  the  floor  is  the  ideal  kind,"  said  Eliot.  "  It 
seems  like  Pompeii,  and  the  pictui-es  by  Alma  Tadema." 

"  Outside  of  the  tiling  is  a  preparation  of  non-conducting-  mate- 
rial with  a  space  between  for  the  circulation  of  warm  air  to  keep  the 
tiles  from  chilling  the  water.  You  see  these  places  of  open  work 
here  in  the  Avall?  That  is  for  the  admission  of  air,  as  hot  or  cool  as 
Ave  may  want  it.  So  we  can  even  take  a  good  Turkish  bath  here. 
After  the  hot  air  we  can  raise  the  floor  and  take  a  cool  plunge. 
George  the  porter  has  been  a  Turkish-bath  assistant  in  New  Orleans. 
Here  is  another  ingenious  contrivance.  This  moveable  floor  is 
double.  Now  see  how,  by  a  slight  change  we  can  have  just  the 
conveniences  for  rubbing  down.  As  he  spoke  he  turned  the  floor 
back  into  its  place  and  then,  turning  the  wheel  in  a  reverse  direc- 
tion, the  tiling  in  the  central  part  rose  and  formed  a  reclining--table 
about  six  feet  long  and  three  wide.  "  Then  there  is  a  shower,  in  the 
ceiling,  and  here  on  the  side  are  arrangements  for  douche,  etc.  So 
we  can  take  almost  any  kind  of  bath  we  like.  And  we  can  splash 
water  all  over  this  room  without  harming  anything.  Well,  now  let 
us  go  on.     Here  is  the  dinuig-room,  amidships." 

As  they  entered  they  found  the  rest  of  the  party  just  returned 
from  the  forward  part  of  the  car,  which  they  had  been  inspecting 
under  the  guidance  of  Mrs.  Brinkley.  With  them  were  several  new 
arrivals  —  friends  avIio  had  come  to  see  them  off.  "  It  is  perfectly 
lovely !  "  exclaimed  one  of  these,  a  young  lady  who  had  been  a 
schoolmate  of  Florence's. 

"  Enchanting  as  Aladdin's  palace  !"  said  another.     "  I  feel  just 


20  THE    CRUISE    OF   A    LAND-YACHT. 

as  I  do  Avhen  I  go  to  see  friends  off  on  a  steainei-  for  Europe  !  I 
want  to  start  right  off  myself  !  " 

"  We  are  going  to  take  a  cup  of  chocolate.  Will  you  gentle- 
men not  join  us  ?  "  said  Mrs.  Brinkley. 

"Thank  >ou,"  replied  her  husband,  but  we  want  to  give  this 
other  young  sailor  here,  Harry's  friend,  a  good  idea  of  our  yacht 
first." 

The  dining-room  was  somewhat  larger  than  the  parlor  and  was 
furnished  in  a  correspondingly  simple  but  artistic  style.  At  one 
end  was  a  sideboard,  and  at  the  other  was  an  upright  piano.  Over 
the  table  there  was  a  cluster  of  low-hanging  electric  lights,  with  a 
large  shade  of  fringed  silk.  "  I  have  finished  this  part  in  cherry, 
which  gives  the  room  a  darker,  subdued  effect,  which  is  appropriate 
for  a  dining-room,  where  it  seems  to  increase  the  sociabihty  of  a 
meal  by  concentrating  the  light  on  the  table.  But  with  that  cen- 
tral cluster  raised  to  the  ceiling,  and  vnth  other  various  brackets,  we 
can  make  the  room  light  enough  when  we  gather  here  for  a  musical 
evening,  or  any  other  purpose.  Now  we  will  keep  on  to  the  'bows' 
and  take  a  look  at  the  '  galley  '  and  '  forecastle,'  as  you  nautical  young 
fellows  would  say." 

As  they  passed  forward  an  appetizing  whiff  stnu'k  their  nostrils. 
On  the  left,  next  to  the  dining-room,  was  the  pantry  and  china-clos- 
et, and  beyond  that  the  kitchen,  where  they  caught  a  glimi)se  of  a 
round-faced  colored  man,  almost  as  black  as  the  kettles  Ix'lorc  him, 
busy  before  a  range,  assisted  by  a  spry  boy  of  the  same  \n\v. 

"Well  Sam,"  remarked  Mr.  Brinkley,  "it  smells  as  if  there 
were  no  danger  of  your  starving  us  !  " 

"I'm    "oin'    to    do    tli'  best  I  kin,   sail!"   replied    the   cook,    his 


THE    CUUISE    OF    A    LAXD-YACHT.  21 

good-natured  face  illuminated  with  a  doulile  row  of  oloainino-  large 
and  regular  teeth. 

-rveno    (h)ul)t   of   that,  Sam.      Oidy 
of  your  good  fare." 

"  I  '11  try  not  to,  sah  !  "   respoi 
fully. 

"■  So  this  is  your  boy  Peter,"  ; 
ley,  patting  the  little  fellow's  woo 
seems  to  be  taking  hold  well. 
Peter?" 

"  Foh'teen  sab  !  "   replied  the  hid.  looKuig  n[i 
with  merry  eyes  and  duplicating  his  father's  grin. 

"You'll  find  that  boy  good 's  a  monkey-show  sometimes;  be 
jess'  know's  how  to  cut  up  shines !  "  said  Sam. 

"Well,  I  expect  Harry  and  Eliot  will  give  him  a  chance  to  let 
himself  out  once  in  a  while,"  laughed  Mr.  Brinkley.  "  It  seems  a 
wonder,  boys,"  he  continued,  turning  to  the  young  men,  "  how  much 
can  be  done  in  a  little  place  like  this  kitchen.  But  everytbing  is 
handy,  and  the  cook  can  lay  his  bands  on  almost  anything  he  wants 
without  stirring.  Well,  we  are  almost  at  the  entl  of  the  ship ! 
Here,  next  the  kitchen,  is  the  heater  for  the  car.  We  shall  hardly 
need  that  five  or  six  days  hence.  Here  on  the  otlier  side  are  the 
berths  for  our  '  crew '  arranged  like  those  in  a  regular  Pullman, 
upper  and  lower.  Then  we  have  room  for  several  trunks,  vou  see, 
and  here  in  the  corner  is  one  of  the  most  important  things  on  l)oard." 
Fenced  off  behind  a  railing  some  machinery  was  running  in  a  very 
lively  manner,  and  Harry  recognized  the  familiar  smooth  hum  ol 
an  electric  dynamo. 


22  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

"  Where  do  you  get  yoi"'  motive  power  for  the  dynamo,  Uncle 
Lemuel  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  From  that  little  enoine  that  seems  to  be  a  part  of  it.  It  is  a 
powerful  little  fellow  !  It  runs  by  ])etroleam,  which  is  converted 
into  gas  and  explodes  by  an  electric  spark.  From  the  dynamo  the 
electricity  goes  into  a  storage-battery,  or  accumulator.  This  gives 
an  extra  supply  sufficient  to  last  some  little  tune  when  the  engine  is 
not  running.  Here  is  still  another  contrivance.  You  see  that  little 
machine  beside  the  dynamo?  That  is  an  air  compressor,  and  the 
compressed  air  is  forced  into  a  tank  underneath  the  floor.  The 
pressure  from  that  air  is  what  makes  the  water  run  -with  such  force 
without  pumping,  as  we  have  just  seen.  Oh  !  I  must  tell  you  that 
this  electricity  serves  another  very  useful  jnirpose  for  us,  besides 
liohtiu"-.  By  means  of  a  motor,  it  runs  a  revolving  fan-blower  that 
brings  in  a  plentiful  supply  of  fresh  air  when  needed.  This  air 
supply  is  conducted  in  pipes  to  any  part  of  the  car,  when  needed.  I 
have  found  that  one  of  the  greatest  discomforts  of  railway  travel 
comes  from  the  stagnation  of  the  aii-  in  a  car  when  it  is  not  in  mo- 
tion ;  particularly  at  night  when  it  is  stopping  over  at  any  jilacc.  or 
both  day  and  night  in  making  a  stay  anywhere.  Sometmies  I  have 
felt  almost  stifled.  That  is  the  reason  Avhy  most  people  want  to 
leave  their  car  at  once  when  they  get  anywlicic  But  with  tliis 
simple  convenience,  if  we  feel  the  need  of  niorc  an-  at  iiiglit.  all  we 
have  to  do  is  just  to  open  the  tube  at  our  bedside  ;  that  makes  an  elec- 
tric connection,  sets  the  fan  in  motion,  and  \vc  breathe  fresh  an-  at 
once." 

Mr.  Brinkley  looked  at  his  wat.h.  -  Wc  start  in  about  iive 
minutes,"   he    said.      "  Well,  wc    have    seen    about    everything    now. 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  23 

There  is  considerable  that  we  cannot  see ;  we  have  to  make  use  of 
all  available  space  on  a  car  like  this.  So  we  have  boxes  underneath 
for  storing  provisions ;  water-tanks,  oil-tanks,  etc.,  in  between  the 
flooring.      And  lockers  everywhere." 

"  All  that  weight  low  down  is  so  much  l)allast  in  the  hold,  I  sup- 
pose,"  remarked  Harrv. 

"  Yes,  it  gives  increased  stability,  and  makes  the  car  run 
smoothly.      Now  boys,  we  will  go  back  'aft.'  " 

Tile  others  were  still  in  the  dining-room.  "  Just  a  sip  of  choco- 
late for  us,  and  then  '  All  ashore  who  are  going  ashore  !  '  "  said  Mr. 
Brinkley. 

A  moment  of  embraces,  kisses,  and  farewell  words ;  then  all 
hastened  to  the  rear  door.  "All  aboard  for  Philadelphia,  Balti- 
more, Washington!"  called  the  conductor;  —  "and  Mexico!"  he 
added,  with  a  friendly  smile  at  the  group  on  the  rear  platform. 

The  stay-at-homes  stepped  off  the  car.  George  the  porter  turned 
down  the  hinged  extensions  that  enlarged  the  jjlatform  on  either 
side  over  the  steps,  and  then  closed  the  gates,  converting  the  place  into 
a  sort  of  balcony  for  a  safe  and  pleasant  outlook  ;  the  locomotive  bell 
started  its  dejiarting  clangor,  slow  and  regular,  and  the  train  began 
to  move.  A  waving  of  handkerchiefs  from  both  sides,  and  Dan,  sud- 
denly thrusting  his  hand  down  into  his  f)vercoat  pocket,  shouted  in 
dismay :  "  Oh  !  I  forgot  !  "  Pulling  out  a  flat  jiackage  he  rushed 
forward  and  handed  it  to  his  friend  on  the  car:  "Here  Harry,  take 
this  along;  and  bring  it  back  full  !  " 

"Harry  seized  it  and  then  watciied  the  scene  behind  him. 
Tears  came  into  his  eyes  as  he  saw  his  parents  standing  there,  wav- 
ing their  farewells,  and  diminishing  as  the  train   receded.     Then,  as 


24 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND- YACHT. 


lie  lost  them  from  sight  he  stepped  inside  and  opened  the  package. 
It  was  a  large  blank-book,  nicely  bound.  On  the  fly-leaf  was 
inscribed,  "  Harry  Marsden,  from  his  friend  and  shij^mate,  Dan 
Matthews.  "  Next  came  a  title-page  of  comical  design  from  Dan's 
own  hand.  Dan  was  exceptionally  good  at  caricature,  and  he  had 
depictured  Harry  in  the  course  of  his  journey  in  a  series  of  adven- 
tures and  ridiculous  mishaps.  Eliot,  who  was  standing  by,  laughed 
heartily  at  sight  of  it.     The  title  read  :   "  Log  of  the  Ariadne." 


CHAPTER    III. 


UNDER    WAY. 


"/^FF  at  last!"  cried  Florence,  and  jnnipin<>'  up  gleefully,  she 
^"^^  seized  Mabel  and  began  to  twirl,  Avith  a  "  tra-la-hi-la-la- 
la-la !  "  until  a  lurch  ot'  the  now  rapidly-rushing-  train,  as  if  roiiiidcd 
a  curve,  threw  them  off  their  balance  and  against  a  sofa,  where  they 
lay  l)ack  laughing  as  girls  can  laugh. 

George  ai)peared  at  the  door  with  the  words,  '•  Su])per  is  leady, 
sir !  " 

Seated  at  the  tal)le  with  his  friends,  under  the  cheery  light, 
and  enjoying  a  nice,  home-like  meal,  Harry  could  hardly  realize  that 
he  was  on  a  train,  speeding  along  s^nftly.  Tliere  was  but  a  sul)- 
dued  noise  and  a  slight  nu)tiou  —  a  gentle  tremor  and  no  johing  — 
the  heavy  car  glided  along  so  smoothly. 

'•  We  are  going  to  liavi'  suppers  and  old-fashioned  iiiid-ilav 
dinners,  and  light  breakfasts,  while  traveling,"  said  Mr.  I?iiidvley. 
"We  niu.st  take  care  not  to  make  our  meals  too  clalioratc;  too 
many  travelers  commit  the  error  of  eating  nu)re  than  they  can 
digest,  with  then-  limited  opportunities  for  exercise.  With  meals 
served  the  way  Sam  knows  how  to  serve  them,  we  shall  enjoy  sim- 
plicity, and  get  variety  from  day  to  day." 

They  were  all  tired  after  their  linal  jucparations,  and  after 
supper  Mr.  Brinkley  said  to  his  nephews  : 

"Now  boys,  vou  can   settle  yourselves  for  the  journey.      I  think 


26  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

you  will  like  to  take  up  your  quarters  here  in  the  dining-room. 
These  sofas  at  this  end  will  be  your  beds  at  night.  This  part  is  as 
o-ood  as  a  separate  room  when  these  curtains  are  drawn.  The 
sofas  in  the  parlor  can  l)e  made  into  beds  also,  but  I  think  you 
will  like  this  l)etter,  for  you  have  the  bathroom  adjoining,  winch 
will  answer  all  the  purposes  of  a  private  toilet-room  for  you  two." 

"  Even  better,"  said  Eliot. 

"Yes,  indeed!  How  jolly  that  will  l)e  !  "  eried  Harry,  with 
joyous  enthusiasm. 

"Here  are  lockers  and  drawers  for  your  clothing.  You  can 
keep  a  good  part  of  your  things  here,  and  it  will  be  mucli  liandier 
than  going  to  trunks  and  bags.  This  car  is  going  to  l)e  our  liome 
for  more  than  three  nu)nths  the  greater  part  of  the  time,  and  we 
Avant  to  have  everything  as  home-like  as  possible." 

Shortly  after  nine  o'clock,  a  yawn  from  Harry  brought  a  symjia- 
thetic  rcsjionsc  in  kind  from  Eliot,  followed  by  a  laugh  and  a  sug- 
oestion  of  l>cd-time.  They  found  everything  made  ready  for  the 
night  by  the  deft  hands  of  George :  nice  wide  l)eds,  with  blankets 
turned  down  at  an  angle  inviting  repose,  in  tin-  jjlacc  of  the  sofas 
of  half  the  brcadtli  they  had  seen  in  their  place. 

"Please  put  your  shoes  just  outside  the  curtains,  and  you  wdl 
iind  them  in  tlic  nioiiiing  all  shining  like  Sam's  face."  said  George, 
bidding  them  gooil  night. 

Eliot,  being  a  veteran  traveler,  was  drawing  the  long,  regular 
breaths  of  sleep  in  less  than  a  minute  after  his  head  touched  the 
l)illow,  while  Hurry  was  ke|)t  awake  by  the  novelty  of  the  situation. 
But  the  monotonous  noise  of  the  train,  and  the  in.'cssant  tremor, 
had   the   elfect   of   a    lullahv.    to  wl.o.e    ...oil. in-    intluen.es    he   soon 


'KXIISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


27 


yielded.  When  the  train  stojjped.  however,  lie  awoUe  at  once,  as  he 
also  did  at  any  marked  (diani;e  in  the  chaiaeter  oF  the  noise,  as 
when  passino-  over  a  lont;-  hridge  with  a  hollow,  rninl)lin<>-  sound.  A 
sleeper  almost  always  thus  awakes  at  the  cessation  of  accustomed 
sounds,  or  the  occurrence  of  new  ones,  until  his  unconscious  sense 
of  hearing-  heconies  used  to  it,  as  when  a  clock  in  the  room  st()])s 
ticking,  or  when  it  strikes  the  hours.  When  Harry  awoke  at  such 
times,  at  first  he  could  not  remember  where  he  was,  and  fancied 
himself  in  bed  at  home,  until  he  gradually  recalled  the  events  of 
the  day  before.  Then  he  would  lift  the  curtain  of  the  window  dose 
to  his  head,  and  peer  curiously  out  through  the  clear  plate  glass  for 
a  nu)ment.  One  time  he  would  note  the  shadowy  trees  and  bushes 
flitting  swiftly,  dmily  by,  and  dark  streams  under  the  stars  slip- 
ping away  for  a  brief  space  through  the  bare,  winter  landscape, 
snowless  and  iceless.  Again  he  woidd  see  the  bright  whiteness  of 
the  electric  lights  of  some  large  town,  and  while  the  train  was  stand- 
ing motionless  at  a  station  the  cessation  of  the  constant,  uniform 
.sounds  would  make  tiie  noises  made  by  the  luinging  of  baggage,  the 
rattling  of  trucks  over  the  station  ])latform,  the  hurry  of  feet  out- 
side, the  cries  and  signals  of  train  men,  all  the  more  striking  in 
relief  against  the  silence.  All  trifles  like  these  had  the  fascination 
of  a  new  experience  for  the  young  traveler,  and  therefore  stamped 
themselves  vividly  upon  his  keen  senses  ;  but  in  two  or  three  days 
more  he  would  cease  to  note  them,  and  would  slee}»  as  souiullv 
through  them  all  as  his  cousin  was  sleeping  that  night. 

It  Avas  far  into  the  nigiit  when  he  was  arou.sed  l)y  an  unusual 
clanking  and  uncou})ling  of  cars,  a  puffing  of  locomotives,  a  switch- 
ing to  and  fro,  a  brief  interval  of  rumbling  somehow  different  from 


28  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

the  sound  of  j^'oiny  over  a  l)ndoe,  and  then  sik'nee  perhaps  for  a 
minute,  foUowed  by  a  sh)wlY  recurrent  thnuip  swish,  thiunp  swish, 
thump  swish  of  heavy  niaehinery.  He  eouhl  see  nothing  through 
the  A\indow,  for  tlie  ear  lay  ehjse  to  some  wall,  or  other  opaque 
object.  So  he  could  not  forl)ear  turning  on  the  light  at  his  side, 
slipping  on  his  trousers  and  coat  over  his  night-shirt,  wrapping  him- 
self in  his  ulster,  and  thus,  half-dressed,  gohig  out  onto  the  rear 
platform  to  look.  He  saw  an  expanse  of  water  behind,  with  a 
foaming,  undulating  track  of  vague  whiteness  dividing  the  darlc 
surface.  He  knew  that  they  must  be  crossing  the  Hudson,  on  the 
great  railway  ferryboat,  from  Fishkill  to  Newberg,  for  he  had  been 
closely  studying  the  maps  of  the  route  for  several  days.  He  stepped 
down  to  the  deck  and  looked  around.  The  train  was  divided  into 
two  sections,  occupying  the  double  track  on  the  boat.  Harry 
looked  up  at  the  tall  smokestack,  with  a  trail  of  black  streaming- 
out  from  the  toji  and  sinking  slowly  down  towards  the  water  in  tin- 
(juiet  air.  Then  he  looked  off  and  saw  the  huge,  dark  bulks  of 
the  grand  highlands  of  the  Hudson  looming  up  from  the  river,  in- 
distinguishable from  their  reflections  below.  At  last,  after  peer- 
ing into  tlie  engine-room  for  a  moment,  and  watrhing  the  great 
machinery  do  its  powerful  work,  he  went  softly  back  into  the  car 
and  was  soon  asleep  again. 

It  was  some  hours  before  dayiight  wlien  tlie  train  came  to  a  sto]> 
which  lasted  so  long  tliat  It  was  (■vi(hMit  tliat  tlicy  were  at  the  end 
of  the  first  stage  of  their  journey,  whereupon  Ibuiy  fell  into  a 
sleep  that  was  not  InoUen  until  he  was  suddenly  aroused  liy  tinding 
bis  face  covered  i.y  some  large,  soft  object  that  had  .lescended 
violently  upon    Ids   head.      lie   pushed    it    away  with    liis    hands,  and 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  29 

heard  a  hoartv  lau<;li.  Eliot  was  in  his  bed  opposite,  leanin<>'  on 
his  elhow,  and  mischievously  enjoying-  the  effeet  of  his  shot,  ha\in<>- 
flung  his  pillow  at  his  cousin.  Harry  proniiitly  lluni;  it  l)ack.  and 
Eliot  remarkin<;-  "•  Thank  you,"  restored  it  to  its  proper  jjlace  and 
lay  back  again. 

"  Half-pa.st  seven,  Harry ;  breakfast  in  half  an  hour!"  and,  as 
he  spoke,  the  familiar  sound  of  the  softly  rattling  ])re))arations  for 
the  morning  meal  were  heard  from  beyond  the  eurtains. 

"  Let's  toss  up  to  see  who  lias  the  l)athroom  first,"  Eliot  })ro- 
])osed. 

"  No,  von  go  first ;  you  woke  up  first  !  "   replied  Harry. 

"  All  right ;  here  goes !  "  and,  leaping  from  bed,  he  disappeared 
through  the  door  close  at  hand.  Harry  had  relapsed  into  the  semi- 
conscious doze  of  morning  when  his  cousin  appeared,  breathing 
vigorously,  and  sitting  on  his  bedside  to  dress,  called :  "  Say  Harry 
my  boy,  isn't  it  jolly  that  we  can  have  a  cool  ])lunge  to  begin  the 
day  with  every  morning,  just  the  same  as  ever." 

"  Why,  so  we  can  ;  I  wasn't  thinking  of  that  ?  " 

"  I  filled  the  bath  as  full  as  possible,  and  left  it  for  yon.  so  you 
needn't  lose  any  time." 

Harry  jumped  up,  and  entering  the  bathroom  was  confiontcd  liy 
the  inviting  spectacle  of  the  clear  water  filling  the  bath  of  clean, 
white  tiles  to  within  a  few  inches  of  the  brim.  With  eyes  lighting 
up  like  those  of  a  water-spaniel  at  sight  of  tlie  element  he  loves,  he 
pulled  off  his  nightshirt  and  in  a  moment  was  under  water  and  out 
again,  a  ruddy  glow  spreading  over  every  inch  of  his  liody.  clearing 
away  as  in  a  flash  every  vestige  of  sleepiness,  making  him  feel  (piick 
and  strong,  with  every  facidty  attuned  to  the  |)itch  of  health. 
After  a  good  rubbing,  he  joined  his  cousin. 


30  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

"  How  stunninof  a  morning  dij)  like  that  makes  yoii  feel,"  he  said. 

"  Doesn't  it  thoiio'h?  '  said  Eliot.  "Why,  the  momentary  shock 
of  the  cool  water  is  like  a  smart  ])low  from  a  friendly  hand,  instan- 
taneously smiting-  every  part  of  tlie  hody.  It  acts  on  every  nerve 
and  hlood-vessel  like  a  bugle  call  that  arouses  a  sleeping  army  into 
acti^^ty.  '  It  brings  the  blood  to  the  surface  and  starts  it  into 
lively  circulation.  It  literally  makes  you  feel  like  a  new  man. 
Many's  the  time  when  I've  got  out  (d'  bed  in  the  morning  vnth  a 
duU,  used-up  feeling,  as  if  I  were  going  to  have  a  siege  of  indi- 
gestion for  two  or  three  days,  I've  had  every  trace  of  it  cleared 
away  the  moment  I  dipped  into  a  bath  of  cold  water.  For  me 
there's  no  medicine  like  it." 

"  Yes,  and  how  tame  a  sponge-bath  seems  after  you  are  used  to 
a  plunge  !  "  said  Harry. 

"  It  is  kind  of  piece-meal  work,  while  a  plunge  does  the  whole 
business  in  a  moment,  —  takes  the  whole  garrison  at  once,  instead 
of  by  detachments." 

"  But  I  know  some  fellows  who  say  they  have  tried  it,  and  it 
uses  them  up,"  said  Harry  ;  "  I  don't  see  why  it  should." 

"  Probably  because  they  haven't  blood  enough,  and  s(i  the  shock 
doesn't  bring  reaction  enough  to  counteract  it.  Oidy  those  of  a 
vio-orous  constitution  can  stand  it.  But  some  old  grannies  say  tliat 
daily  bathing  is  harmful  and  washes  away  the  strength,  —  as  if 
strength  were  sonic  snl)stance  tliat  could  be  dissolved  in  water,  like 
sugar  or  salt!  It  depends  on  the  kind  of  bathing.  Cold  baths  for 
a  strong  person  are  invigorating,  bnt  tVccpicnt  hot  iiaths  arc  ddidi- 
ta'ting.  Tlu'  old  Creeks,  who  understood  the  means  of  hcaltlilul 
bodily    (lcyelo|>nicnt    probably   better  than   any    other    people,    knew 


THK    CRUISE    OK    A    LAND-YACHT.  '61 

the  virtues  of  cold  water  l)atlii]i<>'.  Did  you  ever  hear  of  A|»]toI- 
onius  of  Tyana  ?  " 

"  Do  you  mean  tlio  one  Apollinaris  water  was  named  after  ?  " 
queried  Harry.  "'  I  mean,  you  know,  that  fha])el  on  tin;  Rhine, 
where  the  spring-  is." 

EHot  laiio-lied.  "  No,  that  was  some  old  saint,  I  heHeve.  Appo!- 
onius  was  a  woiuUTful  Greek  who  lived  a  little  I)eF()re  the  time  of  the 
Saviour,  and  did  a  i^reat  deal  to  improve  the  morals  of  the  pag'an 
worhl.  It  is  thoui>ht  hy  sonu'  tiiat  his  mission  was  to  prepare  the 
people  for  the  reception  of  Christianity,  and  probably  the  influenee 
of  his  teaching's,  which  was  deeply  felt  through  the  greater  part  of 
the  .Roman  empire,  made  people  ready  for  the  Christian  doctrine. 
But  what  I  set  out  to  say  was  that  he  was  one  who  held  that  'clean- 
liness is  next  to  godliness,'  and  he  believed  in  the  virtue  of  cold- 
water  bathing.  One  time  he  went  to  preach  to  the  people  of 
Ephesus.  Finding  them  lamenting  that  something  had  hajipened  to 
the  hot  baths,  so  that  they  could  not  use  them,  he  told  them  that 
the  gods  did  not  regard  them  as  fit  to  die  yet,  and  so  had  cut  oif 
their  supply  of  hot  water,  that  they  might  be  compelled  to  use  cold 
and  keep  in  good  health  !  " 

By  this  time  they  were  both  dressed.  Thev  found  the  rest  of 
the  company  in   the  parlor. 

"Well  boys,  iiow  did  you  pass  tlie  first  night  out?"  was  Mr. 
Brinkley's  greeting. 

"  This  is  the  kind  of  •  yaciiting  "  I  like  "  re|)hed  Eliot ;  •'  it  agrees 
with  me  better  than  Harry's  sort." 

''  To  even  up  things,  Harry  ought  to  lie  '  rail-sick  '  on  board  the 
Ariadne,  I  snppo.se,"  laughed  Mr.  Brinkley. 


32  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

"  No  dauger  of  that,  tliaiik  yoii,"  responded  Harry. 

"  We  arrived  safe  in  our  first  })ort  on  time  this  niorniii<>-  yon 
see,"  said  their  nncle.  "  It's  one  of  the  greatest  land-harbors  on 
the  —  no,  I  can't  say  on  the  coast,  can  I  ?  Well,  on  the  rail,  then. 
Lot's  of  craft  here,  and  some  fine  yaclits,  l)nt  nothing  like  the 
Ariadne,  eh  ?  " 

They  were  in  the  yard  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railway  at  Jersey 
City.  Althongh  they  had  left  Boston  on  the  Washington  express, 
they  were  not  going  by  way  of  the  national  capital,  but  had  come 
with  that  train  that  they  might  make  convenient  connection  Anth 
the  Pennsylvania.  Mr.  Brinkley  had  some  business  in  New  York, 
and  they  were  to  stop  over  for  the  day,  leaving  in  the  evening,  and 
going  by  way  of  Chicago  and  New  Mexico. 

Mrs.  Brinkley  and  the  young  ladies  came  in,  evidently  dressed 
for  a  day  of  shopping  and  calls,  and  they  all  went  in  to  breakfast. 

"  Somehow  this  seems  perfectly  outlandish,"  remarked  Florence, 
"  breakfasting  here  in  this  pleasant  style,  with  all  tliis  backing  and 
filling  of  trains,  and  ringing  of  l)ells,  and  tooting  of  whistles  going 
oh  about  us  !  " 

''  M'ait  till  we  get  to  Mexico,  if  yon  call  this  outlandish."  com- 
mented Eliot. 

"  This  seems  a  (pieer  way  to  come  to  New  York  fro 
B'.'ing  here  in  Jersey  City  gives  me  the  feeling  of  h 
ariived  h-om  EniDjie  on  one  of  the  North  German  Lb 
ships,"  .said  Mrs.  Briidvley. 

After  breakfa.st  the  ])arty  se|)arate(l  for  the  day.  the  la^ 
the  ferry-])oat  for  New  York  with  Mr.  IJriiikley.  while 
Ilarrv  were  to  look  around    by  tlieiiiselves.  -.■oiii''-  first  to 


11  1 

?ost 

on. 

iviii 

'■A    .i 

just 

nl 

ste: 

[im- 

ies 

tak 

ing 

Eli 

ot    ; 

Uld 

of 

THK    CRUISK    or    A    LAXH-YACHT. 


33 


the  splendid  great  new  Gennan  steamers  at  the  ]iiei'  in  Iloixjken, 
not  far  away.  At  seven  o'eloik  in  the  eveniiii;'  tiiey  were  all 
together  again  at  supiter,  well  tire:l  after  a  day  spent  husily  in  rnn- 
ning  to  and  fro  troiii  one  end  of  the  great  city  almost  to  the  other. 
Then  at  eight  o'eloik  the  "  Pacific  Express,"  -w-itli  the  Ariadne  in 
tow,  rolled  slowly  out  of  the  station  and  Avas  soon  speedhig  smoothly 
westward. 

"  I  am  sorry  for  one  thing,"  said  Harry,  ''  and  that  is  tliat  Ave  are 
going  throngh  Philadelphia  at  night,  and  I  shall  see  nothing  of  it." 

"  Well,  my  ])ov,  we'll  have  another  chance  at  that,"  said  his 
uncle.  "■  Perhaps  some  day  we  will  take  in  the  great  cities  of  our 
country  on  a  special  cruise." 

Harry  was  thinking  of  sitting  up  until  they  reached  Philadel- 
phia so  that  he  might  see  something  of  it  ;  hut,  as  Eliot  was  nod- 
ding and  he  was  yawnmg  liimself,  he  gave  np  the  project  and  went 
to  hed.  That  night  he  was  only  half-conscious  of  the  train  stop- 
ping at  some  station  here  and  there,  until  the  prolonged  reduced 
pace,  to  which  the  motion  at  last  subsided,  aroused  him  and  made 
him  surmise  that  they  were  drawing  in  to  the  great  Quaker  city. 
He  raised  his  curtain,  and  saw  the  gleam  of  the  Ughts  on  the 
bridges  reflected  in  the  dark  water  as  they  crossed  the  Schuylkill, 
the  twinkle  of  gas-lamps  adowii  straiglit  and  level  Londdu-like 
streets,  running  oiV  at  right-angles  from  the  elevated  track,  until 
they  finally  came  to  a  stop  in  a  great  cavernous  station  which,  by 
the  part  of  it  visible  l)efore  liim,  he  could  see  must  lie  very  liroad. 
While  the  noise  of  scurrying  passengers  and  rattbng  and  lianging 
of  baggage  filleil  tlie  air.  and  he  was  pondering  wliether  he  had 
better  get  up  and  take  a  look  about,  lie  fell  asleep. 


CHAPTER     IV. 

THE    FIRST    OF    THE    CRUISE    BY    DAYLIGHT. 

^^'T^IME!"     sounded    in     Harry's    ears.       He    opened    his    eyes 

■^  drowsily  and  saw  Eliot  standing  over  him,  just  returned 
from  the  hath. 

"  Ahead  of  you  again  ! "'  laughed  his  eousin.  "  I  hated  to  de- 
prive you  of  your  turn  first,  hut  then  you  looked  so  peaceful  Ipng 
there  sound  asleep  it  seemed  a  pity  to  disturh  you.  But  you  don  't 
want  to  lose  any  more  of  this  day  than  you  can  help.  Just  look 
outside  !  " 

Harry  lifted  his  curtain  and  the  sunshine  came  streaming  in. 
"  Oh  !  what  a  morning  !  "'  and  he  was  out  of  l)ed  hefore  one  could  say 
"Jack  Rohinson."  It  was  not  long  before  all  were  out  on  the  rear 
platform,  enjoying  a  breath  of  the  pure  morning  air.  "  Why  this  is 
almost  Mexican  weather!  "  Eliot  exclainu'd. 

"  That  is  the  superlative  of  praise  from  Eliot,"  laughed  his  sis- 
ter ;  "  when  anything  pleases  him  particularly  he  says  it  is  almost  as 
good  as  Mexico  !  " 

"Hurrah  for  Mexico,  if  it  is  going  to  be  like  tiiis  !  "  cried 
Florence. 

Mr.  Briiddey  smiled  approvingly 
sample  of  the  Mexican  tabh-land  clii 
its  way  northward,  Iml  it  is  only  a 
eiHlless  roll  of  climate  that  Mother  > 

34 


••  V 

es.  this  w-cather  is  a  good 

ite.  c 

ooleil    down  soincwhat  on 

impli 

,-,   clipped    olV   of   a   great 

ture 

keeps  spreading  out  over 

THE    (  KUISK    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  35 

that  part  of  the  c-ontinent  from  year's  cikI  to  year's  end,  abiiost. 
Now  and  then  she  sends  a  l)it  of  it  ii|)  Nortli  for  iis,  to  let  us  know 
what  she  has  down  there  !  " 

"The  trouble  is,  that  we  never  know  liere  in  the  Nortli  wiiat  the 
weather  is  ^'oini;-  to  (h)  next!  "    said    Mrs.  Brinklev. 

"  Oh,  yes  we  (h),"  repHed  her  husband.  "We  ean  be  sure  of  one 
thini;-.  and  that  is,  that  it  is  going  to  change  !  Now,  instead  of  en- 
joying a  day  Hke  this  while  it  lasts,  a  kit  of  people  get  melancholy 
over  it  and  call  it  a  'weather-breeder'  and  lose  all  the  comfort  of  it 
in  thinking  how  uncomfortable  they  are  going  to  be  on  the  unpleas- 
ant to-morrow  !  " 

'•  For  my  part,"  said  Mabel,  "  I  am  going  to  get  all  the  ])leasure 
out  of  this  glorious  weather  I  can,  and  if  it  is  bad  to-morrow,  then  I 
am  going  to  take  comfort  in  thinking  of  the  (diniate  we  are  going 
to  enjoy  for  weeks  to  come  !  " 

"  Spoken  like  a  philosopher,  my  girl !  "   said  Mr.  Brinkley. 

They  were  climbing  the  Alleghenies.  The  great  undulating 
slopes,  with  somber  green  mantles  of  pine,  hendork,  and  other  ever- 
gi-eens  covering  their  bare  shoulders  and  mingling  with  their  sober 
winter  garb  of  russet  and  gray,  stretched  away  in  the  distance,  and 
even  the  farthest  summits,  though  dimly  blue,  were  shar])ly  outlined 
in  the  clear,  still  atmosphere.  The  air  was  bracing,  but  the  sun- 
shine was  warm,  and  the  wh(de  broad  landscajie  seemed  to  be  laugh- 
ing in  the  flood  of  genial  light.  The  track  bel.,w,  with  its  evenly 
distributed  an<l  ].erfectly  ord.-red  bed  of  rock  ballast,  seemed  to  be 
slipping  backward  beneath  them  as  they  ran  smoothly  on,  and,  as 
the  tzain  whisked  round  curve  after  curve,  new  vistas  were  contin- 
uallv  openin;'-  out. 


3(5 


CRITISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


So  all  the  nioniing-  they  were  kept  l)usy  luiming-  from  side  to 
side,  or  out  oiito  the  platform,  according  to  the  lav  of  the  landscape, 
and  the  books  that  some  of  them  had  taken  in  hand  were  hardly 
glanced  at.  Eliot  and  Mabel  assmued  the  role  of  cicerones  to  their 
untraveled  younger  companions,  and  Mrs.  Brinkley  beamed  approv- 
ingly over  the  enthusiasm  of  the  young  folks. 

''  Oh,  what  a  trenu^ndous  curve !  "  shouted  Harry ;  '"  that  train  over 
there  that's  just  c(mie  out  of  the  tunnel  is  going  ahmg  in  the  same 
direction  as  we  are,  so  that  we  seem  to  be  racing  it  side  l)y  side  !  " 

"  You  '11  see  it  whisk  jjast  ns  in  a  minute  like  a  shot,"  said  Mr. 
Brinkley.      "  This  is  the  famous  Horse-Shoe  Bend." 

Harry  looked  admiringly  down  the  deep  valley  and  up  the  steep 
mountain  slope,  but  Ehot  said,  semi-derisively :  ''  Just  wait  till  we 
g-et  to  Mexico  and  see  the  chain  of  curves  we  shall  have  then.  Tliis 
is  a  mere  one-horse-shoe  bend  beside  them." 

"If  Eliot  had  only  been  to  heaven,  now,"  called  Mal)c].  "  he 
would  tell  us,  every  time  we  felt  happy,  just  to  wait  until  we  dicil  if 
we  wanted  to  know  what  it  really  was  to  be  happy  !  " 

"  Why,  there  are  log  houses  !  "  cried  Florence,  when  thev  were 
some  ways  further  on.  "  I  had  no  idea  we  should  see  log  houses 
before  we  got  out  West  or  down  South.  '•'  And  those  queer-looking 
woiiicn  with  l)hu'  sugar-sroops  on  tluMr  heads  1  Vou  can  "t  sec  tlicir 
faces  at  all  I  vVnd  such  gaunt  creatures,  with  their  dresses  mailing 
a  straight  line  Iron,  sluuddcr  lo  foot!" 

"  That  is  the  regulation  female  garb  for  the  conntrv  regions  all 
the  way  from  the  AUeghenies  to  Coh)rado,"  explain. 'd  Mabel. 
"  Kvcn  in  our  enliglitened   land   tlieic  are  regions    where    the    scepter 


THE    OUUISE    OK    A    LANU-YACHT. 


■•  With  those  poking  sun-honiiets  and  k'an  fi<;iircs  they  always 
luaUe  nic  tliiiik  of  \valkin<>'  guide-posts,"  ohserved   J]H()t. 

"But  Pennsylvania!"  cried  Florence;  "1  liad  no  idea  there 
was  anything  so  l)e]iind  the  times  here,  when  it  is  in  the  East!  " 

•'  If  being  behind  in  fashion  were  the  only  tiling  to  find  fault 
with  in  Pennsylvania  I  wouldn  't  have  a  word  to  say,"  said  Eliot, 
his  face  darkening  and  eyes  kindling.  "  But  when  it  conies  to 
being  behind  in  civilization  ! 
It  is  bad  enough  abnost  any- 
where, but  wliat  do  yon  think 
of  a  State  tliat  allows  little 
children  to  be  sent  to  work 
in  the  coal-breakers  instead 
of  to  school,  as  soon  as  they 
get  old  enough  to  be  sent  to 
school,  —  to  work  all  day  in  the  choldiig  black  dust,  to  be  wrecked 
for  bfe,  body  and  soul,  if  by  chance  any  of  them  live  long  enough 
to  grow   up  !  " 

•' ()  horril)le  !  horriI)le  !  "  cried  the  others.  '"But  is  that  really 
true  ?  " 

"  As  true  as  gospel  !  "   replied  Eliot. 

•■But  why  don't  tiiey  stop  if.'"   asked  Harry. 

'•  Because  tiie  ])aients  are  so  poor  they  can  't  live  without  put- 
ting their  little  ones  to  work  almost  as  soon  as  they  can  to(hile.  and 
the  companies  that  cm])loy  them  want  to  make  all  tiie  monev 
possible." 

"But  that  ought  not  to  be,"   said  Florence. 

"Certainly  not,"  responded  Eliot.    "  But  what  will  be  the  future 


38  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

of  a  State  where  the  Hves  of  the  ehikheii,  who  are  the  material  for 
the  coming-  men  and  women,  are  allowed  to  be  wasted  in  that 
way?  Why,  every  farmer  knows  what  would  become  of  his  live- 
stock if  his  colts  and  calves  and  lambs  were  imfed  and  sickly." 

"  But  I  thought  Pennsylvania  was  an  intelligent  State  !  "  said 
Harry. 

"  Does  that  look  like  inteUig-ence  ?  "  asked  Eliot.  "  How  can 
we  expect  a  State  to  be  intelligently  governed  when  so  many  of  its 
people  are  growing  up  in  ignorance  ?  But  in  Pennsylvania  they 
are  human,  as  elsewhere  ;  a  State  with  such  a  grand  history  ought 
to  have  a  grand  future.  Some  day  they  will  get  aroused  and  wipe 
out  the  disgrace  of  an  evil  as  wicked  as  negro  slavery  was  !  "' 

On  and  on  they  went  through  the  mountains,  down  the  narrow 
valley  of  the  Conemaugh,  where  they  saw  the  traces  of  the  great 
Johnstown  flood.  In  places  the  landscape  was  so  scarred  that  it 
seemed  as  if  Nature's  hand  would  never  heal  it.  But  the  city, 
where  a  few  months  before  thousands  had  been  swept  out  of  life  in 
an  instant,  appeared  to  have  recovered  itself  w()n(knfully,  and  re- 
built on  every  hand,  it  looked  remarkably  prosperous. 

Before  one  o'clock  they  had  descended  to  Pittsburg  —  busy,  grow- 
ing, and  covered  with  grime.  "  I  should  think  the  ])lace  had  been 
named  on  acconnt  of  this  black  pit  ol'  a  valley,  instead  of  for  the 
British  statesman,"  Harry  observed.  Altliougli  the  use  of  natural 
g'as  had  cleared  the  air  remarkal)ly  in  the  past  few  years,  it  still 
.seemed  very  smoky  to  his  Eastern  eyes. 

Then,  on  through  the  afternoon  sunshine,  skirting  for  a  while 
the  yellow  Ohio  river,  where  for  a  rarity  tli;'  oild-looking.  lilunt- 
nosed  ;ind  stern-wheeled  steand)oats  were    now   and    then  to    be   seen 


THE    CUUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  39 

with  long  lines  of  ooal  barges  behind  in  tow,  for  there  had  yet  been 
111)    if    this    remarkable     winter,    and     navigation    was   still    open. 

"  Those  steamboats  look  like  wlieel-barrows  turned  upside  {]owi> 
and  going-  backwards  !  "  said  Ilarrv. 

Steadily  on  they  sped  through  the  great  state  of  Ohio,  amid 
prosperous  farms,  winding  among  rolling  hills  al)ounding  witli 
woods,  and  stopping  at  large  towns  where  the  immv  tall  steeples 
were  rivalled  in  height  and  surpassed  in  number  by  tlie  factory 
chimneys  that  seemed  like  pillars  supporting  a  dark  canopy  of 
smoke  hanging  o\er  each  place.  "  I  had  no  idea  there  were  so 
many  large  places  out  here,"  said  Harry  ;  "  it  seems  as  thickly  set- 
tled and  solidly  built  as  New  England." 

"  I  think  tliat  nearly  everyboily  who  come.s  West  for  the  first 
time  expects  to  Hud  things  half  wild  and  in  the  rough,"  remarked 
Eliot.  "  But  we  must  rememlier  that  Ohio  is  a  pretty  old  State,  and 
the  people  here  never  think  of  themselves  as  being  '  Out  West.'  " 

"  The  country,  too,  seems  like  New  England,  only  more  mellow 
and  expansive,"  said  Mabel. 

"  I  should  think  it  would  be  l)cautiful  in  the  spring  and  sum- 
mer," said  Florence.  "  Only  I  don  't  like  the  looks  of  that  muddy 
water  standing  and  running  everywhere.  But  they  don  't  appear  to 
have  anything  else.      How  can  people  ever  drink  it!  " 

As  dusk  came  on  it  seemed  as  if  some  holiday  celebration  were 
going  on,  so  frequent  were  the  illuminations  from  the  Hame-belcliin«- 
chimneys  of  iron-fiunaces  and  from  the  exposed  interiors  of  rolling- 
mills,  where,  as  they  passed,  tlicy  .oidd  see  the  dazzling  dots  of  the 
white-heated  masses  of  molten  metal  revealed  through  the  oijcn 
doors  of   furnaces.     The    gangs  of  u\vi\    who  pulled   it   about    into 


40 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


smoke-i'louds    to    give 
universal  fuel,  and  ever 

While    the    voiuii;- 
something-  startling  ore 
all   except   Eliot,    wlio, 
was  coining  and   was    ji 
comimnions.      As    the    i 
in    its    approach    to    .•, 
tall,    tliick     pipe    st:in.lii 
grcMt    mass   ..r   llamc.    w 
steam    hoilers   hicwin-.    . 


long,   wriggling   streaks 
looked    like    dancing    imps, 
black     against     the     fierce 
light,  and  the  gleaming  bars 
that     they     were     handling 
seemed    hissing  serpents,   as 
they    changed    slowly    from 
luminous    Avhite    to    orange, 
and    in    a    sullen     red    glow 
faded  out  into  darkness. 
>ne     region     through     which 
the\  passed,  instead  of  electric  lights 
ordinary  street-lamps,  the    towns 
1  what  looked  like  torches   stuck 
nito    the  ground    with    ragged    pen- 
nants of  Hame  lazily  waving  in    the 
still  night  air.      Here  theie  were  no 
lurid    reflections,    for    natural    gas  was    the 
y thing  was  bright  and  clean. 
]ieople    were    looking    out    at    these     sights 
lured  that  made  them  all  jump  with  fright ; 
having    been    that    way   before,   knew   what 
)repared    to   enjoy   the    consternation    of    his 
r-ain    was    mox  ing   slowly  tlni)ngh    the    fields 
large    town,    suddenly    there    shot     t'nmi    a 
ig    not     far    Irom    the    traek.    a     tremendous 
ith  a  roar   like    that    of   a  hundred    tiiousand 
)iV    at    once,   as    ilarrv    afterwards  exi)ressed 


41 


it.  The  young  ladies  shrieked,  and  h>v  a  momciit  Ilanv  felt 
as  if  iiis  lieart  were  coining  up  into  liis  nioiitii.  Tlic  roaring 
grew  vvvn  louder  as  the  flames  shot  up  still  higher.  The  fire-mass 
was  dancing  upon  the  top  of  a  grayish  stream  of  vapor  that  rushed 
out  of  the  ])ipe  witli  tremendous  force  for  about  twenty  feet  Itefore 
turning  into  a  blaze.  It  was  like  a  gigantic  l)ou([uet  of  flame- 
flowers,  of  the  most  vivid  tints,  constantly  chajiging,  —  orange, 
yellow,  crimson,  purple,  green,  violet,  and  blue,  —  with  huge 
tongues  licking  the  darkness  and  sheets  of  five,  flapping  downward, 
as  if  savagely  .seeking  to  devour  some  one  below.  For  a  long  dis- 
tance around  everything  was  illuminated  as  brightly  as  in  the  light 
o£  a  conflagration. 

It  is  only  a  natural  gas  well !  "  explained  Eliot,  still  laughing  at 
their  fright.  "  They  '  shoot  it '  every  time  a  through  train  passes 
by  in  the  evening,  so  as  to  advertise  their  town." 

"  It  is  the  most  awful  thing  I  have  ever  seen  !  "  cried  Mabel, 
stiU  holding  her  ears. 

"  That's  the  most  magnificent  fireworks  in  the  world  !  "'  shouted 
Harry. 

"  Absolutely  gorgeous!  "  Florence  exclaimed. 

"  That  well  is  one  of  the  biggest  around,"  said  Eliot.  "  It  can 
send  out  ten  million  fei't  an  hour,  and  the  ])ressure  is  .so  great  that 
it  condenses  tlic  gas  and  makes  it  visilde  in  that  gray  stream  you 
see,  like  water  from  a  fire-hose." 

"  Why,  if  they  only  had  it  in  Boston,  at  a  dollar  a  thousand  it 
Avould  be  worth  a  thousand  dollars  an  hour  !  "  calculated  Harry. 
''  If  thev  could  only  keep  up  the  price  with  sncli  a  supply  at 
haml!"    he    added. 


42  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

"  They  wasted  the  gas  out  here  terribly  at  first,"  Eliot  went 
on.  "  They  once  believed  that  the  supply  was  inexhaustible,  but 
now  scientists  generally  agi-ee  that  it  will  not  last  a  great  many 
years,  and  so  they  have  grown  more  careful  not  to  waste  it.  It's 
use  in  these  places  out  here  has  made  a  wonderful  change.  It  has 
so  increased  general  convenience  and  comfort,  besides  being  so 
economical  that  even  if  the  supply  of  natural  gas  should  be 
exhausted  they  would  never  return  to  the  use  of  coal,  but  would 
manufacture  gas  for  fuel.  Gas,  I  believe,  will  undoubtedly  be  the 
fuel  of  the  future.     It  can  be  made  for  a  few  cents  a  thousand." 

"  What  a  grand  thing  it  would  be,  if  everywhere  tliey  could 
only  get  rid  of  coal-dust,  ashes,  and  smoke,  as  they  have  out 
here  !  "  said  Harry. 

"  In  this  city,  for  instance,  you  will  not  find  a  coal-wagon  or 
wood-cart  in  town,"  said  Eliot.  "  And  in  lots  of  houses  you  Avill  see 
the  shovel  from  the  coal-bin  hung  on  the  j^arlor  wall,  gilded  and 
decorated  and  tied  with  ribbons,  with  the  inscription,  '  Laid  to  rest 
on  January  9,  1888,'  or  whatever  the  date  of  the  introduction  of 
natural  gas  into  the  house  may  have  been." 

"  How  })erfectly  delicious  !  "   cried  Florence. 


CHAPTER  V. 

IN  THE  HEART  OF  THE  CONTINENT. 

'^  QO  that  is  Chicag-o  off  there  !  " 

^  It  was  the  next  morning,  and  they  were  looking  out  over 
what  seemed  an  endless  expanse  of  land,  as  flat  as  the  ocean  level. 
The  horizon  line  was  broken  by  climips  of  buildings  here  and 
there,  \\itli  factory  chimneys  thrusting  themselves  up  into  the  gray 
sky  and  increasing  its  sombreness  with  their  black  fumes. 

"  Yes,  where  all  that  smoke  is,"  responded  Eliot  to  Harry's 
remark,  and  referring  to  a  thick,  black  cloud  in  the  distance 
towards  the  northwest  that  hung  down  on  the  land  and  covered  it 
like  a  pall,  obscuring  the  view  in  that  direction. 

They  had  been  standing  still  for  some  time.  It  was  early  day- 
light.    Mr.  Brinkley  came  out  of  his  stateroom  and  asked  : 

"  What  is  the  matter  ?  Here  it  is  nearly  eight  o'clock,  and  we 
should  have  been  in  Chicago  at  7.05.  Have  we  '  run  aground,' 
Harry  ?  " 

Harry  laughed  to  hear  the  nautical  term  and  replied  in  kind : 

"  Oh,  no  ;  I've  just  been  out  to  '  take  an  observation.'  Nothing 
has  happened  to  us,  but  there's  the  wreck  of  a  freighter  ahead, 
blocking  our  channel ;  that  is,  there's  a  freight  tram  smashed  up  on 
the  crossing  just  out  there,  and  we've  been  waiting  here  for  orders. 
The  conductor  just  told  me  that  we  Avere  going  to  run  back  a  piece 
and  switch  over  onto  the  Grand  Trunk,  going  in  over  their  track 
for  some  ways  and  then  getting  back  onto  the  Fort  Wayne." 


44  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

Just  then  they  started,  and  they  were  soon  withm  the  limits  o£ 
the  great  city  that  is  spreading-  its  huge  bulk  out  over  the  prairie, 
the  rows  o£  little  wooden  houses  huddling  closer  and  closer  as  they 
proceeded.  At  last  they  saw  a  lot  of  masts  rising  over  the  houses, 
and  came  close  to  a  narrow  strip  of  water  full  of  steamers  and  tugs 
hauled  up  for  the  winter. 

"  This  Chicago  river  has  a  greater  commerce  than  any  other  body 
of  Avater  of  its  size  in  the  world,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley.  "  Chicago  is 
the  first  port  in  the  country  in  resjaect  to  tonnage,  and  second  only 
to  New  York  in  number  of  vessels  arriving  and  departing. 

Harry  looked  at  the  craft  with  critical  eyes  :  "  All  those 
steamers,  with  the  smokestack  way  astern,  and  built  so  straight  up 
and  down  behind,  have  a  clumsy  sawed-o£E  look.  One  of  the 
freight  boats  between  Boston  and  Gloucester  came  from  the  lakes 
and  is  built  just  like  that,  and  they  call  her  the  '  Junk  of  Pork  '  all 
along  the  coast !  " 

As  they  passed  through  the  station,  on  tlieir  way  to  drive  to  a 
hotel,  Florence  gave  a  shudder  at  the  sight  of  the  gaudy  decorations 
and  declared  it  "  atrociously  Western." 

"But  Chicago  ideas  have  changed  in  the  past  ten  years;  I'm 
a  great  believer  in  Chicago,"  replied  her  father.  "  Tliey  tliouglit 
this  station  splendid  when  it  was  buiU  ;  but  now  (lu>v  liave  some  of 
the  finest  modern  architoctuiv  on  the  continent  hvw  in  tliis  city. 
A  pity  they  coat  it  all  over  with  soot,  tliougli  !  ""  lie  added,  as  they 
drove  away  through  the  streets  darkened  witli  the  licaxy  cldiuls  of 
bituminous  smoke  that  came  dropping  down  upon  them.  They 
were  going  to  spend  the  day  looking  over  the  city,  and  Mr.  JJrinkley 
had  arranged  to  have  the  Ariadne  taken  around  to  the  Dearborn 


^1I# 


>; 


■^ 


THK    CHUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  45 

Street  station,  where  tliey  were  going  out  at  six  o'clock  l)y  the 
"  Sante  Fe." 

Eliot  and  Harry  went  hy  themselves  to  roam  over  the  city 
tog-ether  and  see  what  interested  them. 

"  Yesterday  was  a  weather-hreeder,  true  enough,"  grumbled  the 
former,  huttoning  his  ulster  close  around  his  neck  and  turning  up 
his  collar.  "  This  clammy  air,  filled  with  soot,  makes  me  sneeze  and 
cough  and  shiver,  all  at  once." 

"  It  seems  like  a  Boston  east  wind  with  the  salt  taken  out 
of  it!  "  said  Harry. 

''  The  cold  air  from  the  lake  acts  on  these  shores  like  a  refrig- 
erator !  There's  old  Michigan  now !  "  and  Eliot  pointed  to  a 
leaden  expanse  at  the  end  of  the  street.  "  It  seems  strange  to  see 
it  in  January  without  any  ice !  I've  seen  it  towards  the  end  of 
May,  white  with  ice-cakes  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  and  making 
the  air  of  the  city  like  that  of  March,  while  ten  miles  out,  going 
west,  I  found  it  as  balmv  as  June,  with  vegetation  several  weeks  in 
advance." 

But,  when  they  came  together  at  the  train  that  evening,  and 
discussed  the  events  of  the  day  at  the  supper-tahle  while  they  rolled 
westward  through  the  darkness,  Mr.  Brinkley  found  all  the  young 
people  enthusiastic  over  Chicago,  in  s])ite  of  its  climate  and  its 
smoke. 

"  Harry  and  I  made  a  break  for  the  hathroom,  though,  as  soon 
as  we  got  aboard.  We  felt  like  chimney-sweeps,"  said  Eliot.  They 
had  the  genuine  American  admiration  for  the  energy,  enthusiasm, 
and  ceaseless  activity  whose  results  were  manifest  in  the  gigantic 
growth  and  achievements  of  the  great  city.     Eliot,   as  an   actual 


46  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

engineer,  and  Harry,  as  a  2ii'f>spective  electrician,  were  particularly 
interested  in  the  public  works.  "  They  go  at  things  in  a  practical, 
common-sense  way,"  said  the  former.  "  They  are  going  to  spend 
I  don't  know  how  many  millions  on  a  great  system  of  sewerage 
and  water-supply." 

"  And  I  noticed  that  they  have  a  fine  system  of  electric  Hghting, 
and  run  all  the  wires  underground,  although  the  companies  in 
Boston  say  they  can't  do  it ;  it  is  too  dangerous  !  "  said  Harry.  But 
the  chief  engineer,  whom  we  had  a  talk  with  at  the  city  wovks,  says 
it  is  perfectly  safe  and  they  never  had  an  accident.  The  thing  of  it 
is,  the  city  runs  the  lights  itself,  and  does  it  for  a  quarter  of  what 
Boston  pays  the  companies.  He  laughed  when  we  said  Ave  Avere 
from  Boston,  and  said,  '  We  don't  celebrate  our  Thanksgiving  out 
here  by  burning  down  a  large  part  of  our  business  section,  in  conse- 
quence of  overhead  electric-light  Avires  ! '  " 

"When  do  we  cross  the  Mississippi,  father?"   asked  Florence. 

"  At  about  one  o'clock  in  the  morning.  We  cross  to  Fort 
Madison  in  Iowa  and  make  almost  a  bee-line  for  Kansas  City,  cut- 
ting across  the  southeastern  corner  of  loAva." 

"  Oh,  dear !  "  Harry  sighed  ;  "  the  trouble  Avith  me  is  I  want  to 
see  everything.  Here  I  haven't  seen  a  speck  of  Indiana,  and  only 
just  this  patch  of  Illinois  around  Chicago,  and  noAv  we  are  going  to 
cross  the  Mississip])i  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  and  I  shall  not  see  a 
bit  of  Iowa,  either  !  " 

"  Never  mind,"  said  Eliot  consolingly,  "  you  can  say  you've 
been  there  all  the  same,  and  that  is  the  main  thing ;  all  the  country 
out  this  way  looks  alike  in  the  winter,  so  it  is  just  as  well  to  pass 
through  it  fast  asleep  !     And   although   you  miss   the  Mississii)pi, 


THK    CRUISE    OF    A    LANP-YACHT.  47 

you'll  see  the  Missouri  in  the  morning,  which  amounts  to  the  same 
thing  you  know,  for  the  geography  tells  us  that  is  the  main  stream, 
and  it  is  always  reckoned  so  in  malcing  out  the  Mississippi  the 
longest  river  in  the  world." 

"  And  hesides,  we  shall  see  the  Mississippi  wliere  it  is  largest, 
when  we  cross  it  at  New  Orleans  on  our  way  hat^k,"  Mr.  Brinkley 
added. 

Harry  resolved,  however,  to  look  out  at  the  Mississijjpi  when 
they  came  to  it ;  hut  luifortunately  for  his  determination  he  was 
now  completely  accustomed  to  sleeping  on  the  train  ;  nothing  in  the 
usual  line  of  occurrences  disturbed  him,  and  being  healthily  tired 
after  his  day  in  Chicago,  the  slow  crawling  of  the  train  over  the 
long  bridge  across  the  "  Father  of  Waters  "  did  not  awaken  him. 
In  the  inky  darkness  of  that  night,  he  would  not  have  seen  any 
more  than  an  uncertain  gleam  of  the  dark  current  flowing  below, 
had  he  lifted  the  curtam  of  the  window  beside  him. 

Shortly  after  daylight  the  next  morning  they  crossed  the  Mis- 
souri, and  while  they  were  at  breakfast  the  train  ran  along  the 
southern  shore  for  something  like  half  an  hour,  and  they  watched 
the  swift  and  turbid  current  of  the  great  stream  from  tlH>  windows 
as  they  ate. 

"  The  '  Big  Muddy  '  they  call  it  out  here,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley. 

"And  a  most  appropriate  name  it  is!"  exclaimed  Florence. 
"  It  looks  like  a  river  of  pea  soup.  I  don't  see  how  water  can  be 
any  muddier." 

''  It  can,  though,"  said  Mabel.  "  You  ought  to  see  the  Colo- 
rado !  It  is  absolutely  red,  and  when  I  crossed  it  at  the  Needles, 
on  the  way  to  California,  it  looked  like  liquid  Vermillion." 


48  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YAOHT. 

"  They  tell  a  story  about  a  man  who  fell  off  a  steamboat  here  on 
the  Missouri  in  the  night,"  said  Eliot.  "  He  swam  and  swam,  carried 
by  the  current,  and  at  last  gave  up,  exhausted  ;  but  when  he  Avent 
to  sink,  he  found  hunself  standing  with  the  water  below  his  waist. 
He  had  been  struggling  in  less  than  three  feet  of  water  ever  since 
he  fell  overboard,  and  he  was  so  angry  at  his  Avaste  of  exertion 
that  he  forgot  to  be  thankful  for  his  escape  !  " 

"  What  a  splendid  train  this  is !  "  said  Florence,  who,  with 
Harry,  had  been  forward  exploring,  according  to  a  custom  which 
they  had  adopted  of  making  a  daily  tour  of  the  cars.  "  It  seems 
like  our  car  enlarged  into  a  whole  train." 

"  Yes,  it  made  me  think  of  being  f)n  an  ocean  steamer,"  said 
Harry.  "  The  vestibules  make  the  Avhole  train  like  one  contmuous 
car,  and  the  different  cars  seem  like  tlie  various  saloons  of  a  steam- 
ship ;  so  we  are  now  like  a  yacht  in  the  tow  of  a  great  steamer." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley,  "  they  have  got  the  luxui-y  of  travel 
by  rail  reduced  to  a  science,  and  we,  in  our  car,  are  not  so  very  much 
more  comfortably  fixed  than  those  in  the  Pullmans  of  this  train, 
except  that  we  are  by  ourselves  and  can  stop  and  go  on  as  we  may 
please,  —  beside  the  various  little  improvements  I  have  introduced 
in  construction  and  arrangement,  which  will  probably  be  generally 
adopted  before  h)ng.      But  here  we  arc  with   Kansas  City  in  sight." 

They  had  left  the  river  and  were  skirting  the  city  around  to  tlie 
southward,  by  the  "  Beit-Line  llailway." 

"  Kansas  City  is  almost  a  second  Chicago  in  its  wonderful 
growtli,"  observed  Eliot.  "  The  real  name  of  the  place  is  the  '  City 
of  Kansas,'  and  it  was  named  before  Kansas,  the  State.  It  seems 
remarkabh-  lliat  tbc  i^i-cat   centre  uC   ((.iniucrcc   for  that  State,  l.eai- 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  49 

ing-  the  same  iiaiiic,  should  be  just  over  the  Hue  outside  its  limits,  iu 
Missouri.  But  a  cousiderable  portion  of  the  city  is  in  Kansas. 
The  name  of  that  i)ait  is  '  Kansas  City,  Kansas,'  and  it  joins  the 
main  city,  so  that  a  stranger  could  not  tell  where  one  ends  and  the 
other  begins." 

They  drew  slowly  into  the  Union  Depot,  wending  their  way 
through  such  a  maze  of  tracks  that  it  seemed  ahnost  wonderful  how 
they  could  be  kept  froni  going  astray.  At  the  station  there  were 
numerous  trains  drawn  up,  placarded  to  depart  in  every  direction. 
Mr.  Brinkley  proposed  that  they  all  get  out  for  a  morning  constitu- 
tional along  the  platform  of  the  station.  The  air  was  soft  and 
summer-like.  The  young  men  declared  that  overcoats  were  super- 
fluous in  weather  like  that,  and  refused  to  put  them  on. 

"•  What  a  day  for  January  !  "  cried  Mabel.  "  This  seems  really 
Southern  !  " 

"  That  must  be  because  Missouri  is  a  Southern  State  !  "  re- 
marked Harry. 

"  Yes,  and  to-morrow,"  said  his  uncle,  "  as  likely  as  not  the 
mercury  might  drop  below  zero  !  The  climate  runs  to  extremes  out 
this  way." 

A  line  of  high,  clay  bluffs  capped  with  a  dense  mass  of  l)uild- 
ino-s,  towered  above  the  level  where  they  were  .standing.  Ticading- 
thither,  with  inclines,  trestles,  etc.,  were  various  lines  of  cable-cars. 

"  The  main  portion  of  the  city  lies  up  there,"  said  Eliot. 
"  Down  here  on  the  river-bottom,  as  they  call  it,  are  the  factories, 
packino--establishments,  stoek-yards,  and  the  like." 

"  It  is  very  much  like  Quebec,  then,  with  its  ITpper  Town  and 
Lower  Town,"  said  Mabel. 


50 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


"  How  I  should  like  to  run  up  there  through  that  plane  and  see 
how  it  looks  on  the  other  side  !  "  Florence  cried,  pointino-  to  a 
tunnel  opening  in  the  face  of  the  bluff. 

"  We  can  do  it  if  we  like,"  said  Eliot.  "  The  cars  are  running- 
all  the  time  ;  we  have  nearly  half  an  hour  before  the  train  starts, 
and  we  can  get  up  there  and  back  in  a  few  minutes." 

"  Let's  go,  then  !  Do  you  hear  what  Eliot  says,  father  ? 
Can't  we  ?  " 

Mrs.  Brinkley  gave  a  sign  of  alarm  at  the  idya  of  their  going  so 
far  from  the  train  ;  but  her  husband  said  he  would  trust  thom  with 
Eliot,  and  off  the  young  people  scampered  in  great  glee  to  the 
elevated  railroad  station  close  by.  A  minute  more  and  they  were 
on  board  a  cable-car  and  going  up  the  incline  towards  the  tunnel. 

"  They  have  hardly  anything  but  cable-ears  all  over  the  city 
now,"  said  Eliot.  "  Perhaps  tliey  are  the  best  system  for  a  place 
where  they  have  such  steep  inclines  as  this,  but  electricity  is  far 
more  practical,  and  in  Lynn  the  electric-cars  run  up  a  grade  of 
twelve  per  cent,  or  six  hundred  and  twenty-four  feet  to  the  mile. 
There  is  a  most  extravagant  waste  of  energy  in  the  cable-system,  for 
it  takes  something  like  eighty-five  per  cent  of  the  power  to  move  the 
heavy  cables,  with  their  length  of  several  miles  of  steel  rope.  With 
electricity  the  economy  is  alniost  in  reverse  ratio.  Electricity  acts 
on  a  ])rhiciple  similar  to  that  of  a  belt  or  cable,  in  the  moving  of 
cars,  but  it  is  so  subtile  in  its  action  that  the  mysterious  force  slips 
along  through  the  conducting  wires  with  comparatively  little  fric- 
tion. The  waste  of  ])()wcr  in  tlic  cable-system  is  in  somt'thing  hke 
tlie  same  proportion  as  the  waste  of  human  energy  in  doing  the  work 
of  the  world,  where  it  is  estimated  that  something  like  ninety  per 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  51 

cent,  of  the  exertion  is  wasted  in  overcoming  the  friction  caused  by 
so  many  persons  Avorking  at  cross  purposes.  The  electric-system  is 
like  the  smoother  way  the  work  of  the  world  will  be  done  some  time 
when  we  learn  how  to  plan  tlungs  in  greater  harmony.  There  is 
nothing  like  thorough  organization  for  doing  tilings  ])r()m]itly  and 
Avell." 

They  liad  passed  through  the  tunnel  and  shortly  after  their 
car  came  to  a  fiiU  stop  at  the  end  of  its  route.  They  stepped  out, 
and  looked  up  and  down  the  streets  that  crossed  at  right  angles. 

"  What  sjjlendid  great  high  buildings  !  "    Florence  exclaimed. 

"  Yes,  they  give  the  distinctive  character  to  Kansas  City  more 
than  the  smiilar  great  structures  do  to  our  Eastern  cities.  It  is  a 
most  stately  and  substantial  looking  place.  The  ordinary  kind  of 
Western  building,  put  up  in  the  '  vernacular'  style ,  as  the  architects 
say,  is  a  cheap  and  ramshackle  affair,  merely  thrown  together.  So 
when  the  wonderful  growth  of  a  place  like  this  demands  iirst-class 
buildings,  it  is  an  easy  thing  to  clear  the  ground  of  the  old  rub- 
bish. That  is  the  reason  why  Chicago  and  Kansas  City  can  change 
theii-  architectural  character  and  take  on  a  more  uniform  appearance 
of  rich  massiveness  with  greater  promptness  than  New  York  or 
Boston,  where  the  old  buildings  are  costly  and  elaborate  in  com- 
parison. But  we  must  be  starting  back  for  our  train  !  "  said  Eliot, 
looking  at  his  watch. 

In  a  few  minutes  more  they  were  standing  in  tlie  pleasant  sun- 
shine on  the  "  quarter-deck  "  of  the  Ariadne,  as  they  had  called  the 
rear  platform,  watching  the  busy  scenes  around  them  as  tliey  again 
besian  to  move  westward. 


CHAPTER     VI. 


OVER    PRAIRIES    AND    PLAINS. 


^^  IT  ERE  we  are  in  Kansas  !  "  cried  Eliot,  a  few  seconds  after  they 
liad  started.     "  That  street  there  is  the  boundary." 

"  The  land  of  John  Brown  and  the  border  war !  "  said  Mr. 
Brinkley.  "  This  State  has  had  a  notable  history  and  a  wonderfiU 
growth.  It  seems  to  have  compressed  the  experience  of  centuries 
into  the  period  of  a  generation  !  " 

"  That  is  the  advantage  that  a  new  community  has  now-a-days, 
starting  on  a  fresh  soil,"  said  his  wife.  "  In  these  days  of  quick 
communication,  and  interchange  of  ideas  as  well  as  materials,  it  has 
the  benefit  of  what  all  the  rest  of  the  world  has  been  learning  for 
ages." 

"There  —  there  is  the  Kaw !  "  called  Eliot,  pointuig  out  a 
large  stream  on  the  right.  We  shall  follow  that  all  the  way  to  To- 
peka." 

"  Why,  it  is  a  good  large  river  !  "  exclaimed  Harry.  "  But  how 
is  it  I  never  heard  of  it  before?  I  thought  I  knew  my  geography 
particularly  well.  I  stand  100  per  cent,  in  that,  I  'd  have  you 
know,  old  man  !  " 

"  Its  real  name  is  the  Kansas,  but  they  all  call  it  the  Kaw  out 
here,"  Eliot  explained. 

"  O  yes,  of  course !  And  it  flows  into  the  Missouii  at  Kansas 
City.     But  why  do  they  call  it  the  Kaw  ?  " 


THK    CKriSK    OK    A     LAND-YACIIT.  53 

"  It  is  simply  a  conuption  of  tlie  name  Kansas,  which  was  origi- 
nally pronounced  Kansaw,  just  as  Arkansas  today  is  pronounced 
'  Arkansaw,'  by  the  solemidy-enacted  law  of  the  State  which  o()t 
disgusted  with  our  Eastern  insistence  on  rhyming-  it  witli  Kansas. 
Both  names  came  to  us  from  the  Indians  by  way  of  the  French, 
who  formerly,  you  know,  owned  all  this  country  in  the  Mississippi 
valley,  and  that  is  why,  like  Illinois,  they  end  in  a  silent  ,s.  The 
Americans  who  came  out  this  way  didn't  have  very  (piick  ears,  ap- 
parently, for  they  at  once  corrupted  Kansair  into  Kair,  and  have 
gone  on  mispronouncing  every  Indian  and  Spanish  word  they  could 
get  hold  of,  ever  since.  As  both  the  city  and  the  State  of  Kansas 
were  named  from  the  river,  it  is  a  wonder  they  didn  't  call  them 
Kaw  too  !  If  chey  would  only  call  Kansas  (Jity,  at  any  rate,  Kaw 
City,  they  might  save  a  good  many  misdirected  letters  from  persons 
who  think  it  is  in  Kansas  instead  of  Missouri.  They  might  make 
one  word  of  it  and  call  the  place  Kawcity,  which  would  make  it 
formed  after  the  style  of  'capacity.'  That  would  be  quite  in  ac- 
cordance with  their  expansive  ideas,  since  they  hold  that  the  capac- 
ity of  their  place  is  unlimited,  which  it  practically  is  so  far  as  popu- 
lation is  concerned,  judging  by  the  s(piare  miles  of  new  '  additions ' 
the  specidators  laid  out  during  the  recent  boom  !  They  are  quick 
to  take  a  hint  for  an  original  name  here  in  the  West  and  I  've  a 
great  mind  to  suggest  it.     They  have  a  good  many  more  strangely 

compounded  names  out    hen Texarkana,   for  JMshiiicc,  made  up 

out  of  Texas,  Arkansas  and   Louisiana  i  " 

"  But,"  objected  his  sister,  "  Kawcity  would  rhyme  with  ■  Pau- 
city,' and  that  would  not  please  a  place  that  is  the  very  centre  of 
abundance,  as  well  as  the  '  Hul)  of  the  United  States'." 


04  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

"  And  then  the  wicked  Chicago  papers  would  be  sure  to  catch 
on  to  the  chance  to  work  up  a  racket  on  the  hands  of  the  Kansas 
City  Avonien  after  the  style  of  the  girls'-f eet  dispute  Avith  St.  Louis, 
and  woidd  call  it  '  Paw  City,'  "  rejoined  Eliot. 

"  But  you  said  the  real  name  of  the  place  was  the  City  of  Kan- 
sas, and  so  they  would  have  to  call  it  the  City  of  Kaw,"  put  in 
Harry.  "  That  would  he  supposed  to  have  something-  to  do  with 
the  crows,  and  for  such  a  get-up-and-get  kind  of  people  to  be  taken 
for  croakers  would  give  them  cause  to  complam  !  " 

"  You  horrid  boy  !  "  cried  Florence  ;  "  I'm  sure  you  are  gettmg 
under  the  influence  of  Kansas  humor  already  and  have  been  reading 
some  of  it.  Say,  Mr.  HoweUs  told  father  the  other  day  about  a  new 
hiunorist  they've  got  out  here,  and  he's  brought  the  book  along  !  " 

"  Tliat  man  who  says  he'll  '  wear  Arcturus  for  a  bosom-pin  '  ? 
His  poems  are  immense.  It's  the  real  Kansas  style  of  saying  things. 
Think  of  that  '  Kansas  zephyr  '  that  turned  the  barking  pup  wrong- 
side  up  and  inside  out  and  then 

Calmly  journeyed  thence 

With  a  barn  and  string  of  fence  ! 

"  I  see  he  writes  under  the  name  of  '  IroiKiuill.'  wliicli,  perliaps, 
is  meant  for  ironical,"  said  Florence. 

Mr.  Brinkley  joined  the  group.  "  The  Missouri  river,  that  we 
have  just  left,"  he  said,  "  was  the  frontier  of  the  '  Wild  West '  xuitil 
after  the  war,  and  now  there  is  hardly  any  more  '  Wild  West  '  to  be 
seen  anywhere.  The  old  Sante  Fe  trail  started  from  the  Missouri  at 
Kansas  City,  and  that  was  what  made  the  beginning  of  that  place. 
The  steamboats  woidd  come  from  St.  Louis  and  leave  their  cargoes 
at  the  little  landing  to  l)e   taken    in    '  prairie   schooners.'      You   see, 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  55 

Harry,  they've  had  the  idea  of  land  navigation  out  here  for  a  good 
many  years  and  we  are  now  yachting  it  over  an  old  line  of  commerce 
laid  out  by  Nature,  something  like  the  track  of  the  trade-winds  for 
ships  commg  from  the  Old  World.  Well,  as  I  was  saying,  the 
prairie  schooners  took  their  cargoes  over  the  famous  old  '  Santa  Fe 
trad  '  for  nearly  a  thousand  miles  into  New  Mexico  through  the 
wilderness,  across  the  prairies  and  plains,  to  supply  that  country 
with  goods  from  the  East  —  which  cost  pretty  high  by  the  tune 
they  got  there.  Those  were  the  days  of  romance  and  adventure  in 
the  wild  West,  —  Indians,  wolves,  buffalo,  wild  horses,  antelopes, 
hardships,  starvation,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  material  you  find  in 
the  books  of  Mayne  Reid,  Ballantyne,  and  other  books  of  the  kind." 

•'Isn't  it  remarkable  that  this  main  line  of  the  Atchison,  Toj)eka 
&  Sante  Fe  Railroad  follows  close  to  the  Sante  Fe  trail  nearly  all 
the  way  ?  "  said  Eliot.  "  It  shows  how  men,  in  striking  out  the 
easiest  way  to  get  across  country,  and  going  ha2)hazard,  wdl  instinct- 
ively follow  the  lines  that  an  engineer  would  take  in  his  delilicrate 
survey." 

"  I  see  aU  the ,  locomotives  and  freight-cars  on  this  railroad  are 
marked  '  Santa  Fe  Route,'  "  Harry  observed. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Eliot,  "  that  is  what  you  might  call  the  '  trade- 
mark '  of  the  line,  the  nickname,  that  has  been  adopted  by  the  man- 
agement, and  is  often  something  quite  different  from  the  name  of 
the  company.  There  is  the  '  Sunset  Route,'  for  instance,  the 
'  Monon,'  the  '  Nickel  Plate,'  the  '  Big  Four,'  the  '  Panhandle,'  the 
'  Bee  Line,'  the  '  Burlington  Route,'  the  '  Frisco,'  etc." 

"  But  everybody  calls  it  the  '  Atchison  '  in  the  East." 

"  Yes,  and    on   the  street    they  call   it   '  tiie   Atch.'     Out   here 


56  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

everybody  calls  it  the  '  Santa  Fe.'  A  railway  often  quite  outgrows 
its  name.  Atchison,  its  original  starting  point,  is  a  city  of  not  much 
importance,  and  Santa  Fe,  its  original  objective  point,  is  now  at  the 
terminus  of  a  little  branch  off  the  main  line.  The  use  of  Santa  Fe' 
in  the  name  of  the  little  coal  railroad  of  fifteen  years  ago  gave  it  an 
absurdly  ambitious  sound  in  the  ears  of  people  out  here,  and,  except 
to  a  few  sanguine  '  dreamers,'  as  they  were  called,  the  idea  of  ever 
building  the  line  to  the  almost  mythical  capital  of  New  Mexico  was 
as  visionary,  as  impracticable,  as  '  Utopian,'  even  to  the  big-notioned 
people  of  Kansas,  as  Bellamy's  ideal  in  '  Looking  Backward '  seems 
to  our  good  friend  General  Francis  A.  Walker,  for  instance.  After 
all,  the  '  dreamers '  are  sometimes  the  most  practical  people  in  the 
world." 

When  they  reached  Lawrence  it  was  pointed  out  as  the  historic 
place  that  was  the  centre  of  the  colonization  movement  from  Massa- 
chusetts started  by  the  Emigrant  Aid  Society  that  made  Kansas  a 
free  State,  and  raised  the  excitement  which  was  one  of  the  direct 
causes  of  the  great  civil  war. 

"  Why,  these  hills  around  here  are  almost  as  high  as  those 
around  Boston,"  exclaimed  Florence.  "  And  this  is  a  prairie  state 
too  !  I  declare  it's  a  downright  imposition  !  A  country  that  is  com- 
posed of  prairies  has  no  right  to  put  on  such  airs  and  liavc  hills 
too  !  " 

They  all  laughed  and  Eliot  said:  "They  are  rolling  ])rairies, 
and  when  you  stand  on  one  of  these  long  land-swells  and  look  off 
over  the  country,  you  see  that  it  is  of  a  general  level  ;  it  almost 
seems  as  if  you  were  at  sea,  ^vith  its  long  waves  rising  and  falhng 
about  you,   except  that  the   undulations  are  motionless.      In    mid- 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  57 

summer  you  can  fancy  it  is  in  motion,  though,  witli  (he  liroad 
i-eat-hes  of  <>-rain  and  <>iass  waving  in  tlie  steady  ^vind,  and  the 
shadows  of  the  clouds  moving  across  the  surface,  sometinaes  singly, 
sometimes  in  batalhons,  and  visible  for  miles  and  miles  away. 
From  down  here  by  the  river  those  prairie  swells,  as  tlie  stream  cuts 
its  way  through,  look  like  ranges  of  hills.  Lawrence  here  is  a 
beautiful,  quiet  place,  thoroughly  New  England  in  character,  and 
seems  like  one  of  our  Eastern  college  towns.  There  is  a  charming 
view  off  over  the  valley  from  the  high  ground  where  the  State 
University  stands." 

It  was  noon  when  they  reached  Topeka,  the  State  capital,  and 
they  went  out  to  walk  up  and  down  the  station  platform  while  the 
jjassengers  were  at  dinner.  "  Why,  there  is  my  old  friend  Colonel 
Johnson,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Brinkley,  hastening  forward  and  cordiallv 
seizing  the  hand  of  a  gentleman  who  was  getting  out  of  a  carriage. 

"  And  if  there  isn't  Charlie  Gleed !  "  cried  Eliot,  at  sight  of  a 
younger  man  coming  from  a  street-car  that  had  just  stopped  at  the 
station.  "  0,  Gleed  !  "  he  sluiuted,  and  liis  Topeka  friend  stopped 
in  astonishment  at  the  sound  of  his  voice. 

"  If  you  didn't  accent  the  '  O  '  so  strongly,  I  should  tliink 
everybody  here  in  the  West  was  Irish,  and  the  descendant  of  Irish 
kings  at  that !  "  said  Harry,  with  a  laugh.  "  I  notice  men  when 
they  call  out  to  each  other,  e\er  siiue  we  left  Chicago,  sing  out: 
'  0  Smith  !   O  Jones  !   0  Brown  ! '  " 

"  Yes,  that  is  the  universal  style  of  accosting  out  here,"  Eliot 
replied. 

"  Well,  Sampson,  old  fellow,  where  did  you  drop  from  ?"  said 
his  friend,  coming  up. 


58  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

"  Off  oil  ;i  yacliting-CTuise  to  Mexico  witli  my  uncle,  Mr. 
Brinkley."' 

"  Yachting?  Well,  this  is  a  good  season  for  it!  No  ice  in  the 
Kaw  yet !  But  voull  have  to  dig  a  canal  from  here  on,  or  take  to 
dryland!  But  what  do  yon  mean  by  yachting?  —  is  that  one  of 
your  new  Boston  notions  ?  " 

"  On  the  contrary,  it  is  one  of  your  Western  ideas  that  we 
benighted  Easterners  have  taken  to  !  Land-yachting,  I  mean.  Do 
you  see  our  craft  there  ?  " 

"  What,  that  snowy  '  special  ? '  Well,  she  does  look  different 
enough  from  a  Pullman  to  be  called  a  yacht,  t)r  anything  else  you 
choose.  No  wonder  there's  a  crowd  of  train-hands  about  her,  look- 
ing as  if  she  had  dropped  from  the  moon." 

"  But  where  are  you  going,  Charlie  ?  " 

"Just  running  up  to  Wichita  with  the  Colonel  on  some  busi- 
ness." 

"  Good  enough  !  Then  of  course  you'll  keep  us  company  as  far 
as  Newton.     I  see  my  uncle  has  taken  the  Colonel  inside." 

When  Mr.  Brinkley  introduced  Colonel  Johnson  to  the  young 
j)eople,  he  said  :  "  We  have  a  rare  historical  specimen  in  the  Colonel, 
vou  mnst  know — an  »y//ro,  as  the  Spanish  say  —  the  oidy  one  of 
the  kind.  In  other  words,  Colonel  Johnson  was  the  iirst  white 
chilli  liorn  in  Kansas." 

'•  IJorn  in  Kansas?"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Urinklcy.  scnii-seriously. 
"  I  didn't  ]<n()w  anybody  was  ever  born  in  Kansas!  I  thought  every- 
body came  lieic.  That  is  the  way  I  can't  help  feeling  about  the 
entire  West,  from  Chicago  on  !  Tbongli  ]uMli;ips  1  might  concede 
that  Mr.  Gleed  was  born  here." 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  59 

"•On  the  (•(iiitrarv,"  said  Eliot,  '' Gk'i'd  is  a  horn  Vemiontcr. 
But  lie  is  a  Kaiisan  of  the  Kausans,  all  the  same.  The  Colonel, 
though,  is  a  New  Englander  at  heart,  and  a  foster-child  of  the  sea, 
which  allowed  him  to  catch,  oil"  Pio-eon  Cove,  the  biggest  codfish  on 
record  !  " 

It  was  a  meniorahle  afternoon  for  the  young  people,  for  the  two 
guests  knew  Kansas  from  end  to  end,  and  they  heard  so  much  of 
interest  about  the  history  and  the  wonderful  development  of  the 
State,  that  they  became  as  enthusiastic  about  it  as  though  Kansans 
themselves.  They  were  struck  by  the  cultivated  appearance  of 
many  of  the  towns  they  passed  through,  with  well  shaded  streets, 
substantial  business  buildings,  and  charming  looking  dwellings  of 
tasteful  architecture. 

"  It  was  nine  years  ago  the  first  time  I  was  out  here,  you  remem- 
ber, Charlie,"  said  Eliot.  "  The  change  since  then  has  been  ahnost 
magical.  Even  at  that  time,  the  trail  of  the  frontier  was  over  it 
all !  Why,  in  Topeka,  the  State  capital,  there  was  not  a  decent 
hotel,  and  except  at  the  railway  restaurants  Iiardly  an  endurable 
meal  was  to  be  had  in  the  State  outside  of  private  families.  In 
Topeka  the  streets  were  ankle  deep  with  mud  after  a  shower,  and 
they  were  just  I)uilding  the  first  street-railway  in  the  State  !  Now, 
they  have  l)etter  streets  than  New  York  or  Boston  ;  miles  and 
miles  paved  with  asphalt.  In  Boston  we  used  to  say  that  we  will- 
ingly paid  liberally  for  public  expenditures,  for  we  insisted  on 
getting  the  best  for  our  money.  That  is  true  no  longer.  We 
still  pay  liberally,  but  now  we  do  not  get  the  best,  for  tlu'  numey  is 
largely  misused  by  our  incompetent  city  government." 

Passmg  through  a  grimy  coal-mining  region,  where  the  land  had 


60  THE    CKUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

a  sterile  and  forbidding-  look,  they  descended  into  the  valley  of  the 
Arkansas,  the  main  stream  of  the  southern  portion  of  the  State,  and 
which  they  were  to  follow  for  the  rest  of  the  way  through  Kansas 
and  well  into  Colorado.  But,  at  that  time  of  the  year  it  was  dark 
some  time  before  they  came  to  where  that  broad  and  shallow  river 
might  otherwise  have  been  seen.  "  What  a  finished  look  this 
country  has !  "  observed  Florence.  "  It  doesn't  seem  like  a  newly 
settled  region  at  all." 

"  And  yet  white  people  have  lived  here  less  than  fifteen  years," 
said  Mr.  Gleed,  with  a  touch  of  pride  in  the  development  of  his 
State. 

"  With  so  many  substantial  stone  walls  in  that  limestone  region 
we  have  just  passed  through,  and  now  with  these  long  fines  of 
hedges  dividing  the  fields,  the  country  has  a  sort  of  English  loolv." 
said  Eliot. 

"  You  see  our  wonderful  capacity  for  growth  includes  the  power 
to  grow  old  quicker  than  any  other  country,"  responded  Mr.  Gleed. 

Harry  observed  that  the  prairies  liereafiouts  were  diiferent  from 
those  they  had  passed  through  ;  they  were  no  longer  rolling,  but 
stretched  evenly  away  to  the  horizon,  their  surface-monotony  brt)l<i'u 
by  houses  standing  here  and  there,  in  every  direction,  surrounded 
by  trees,  and  looking  like  islands  of  an  archipelago,  he  thought. 

"  You  will  hardly  find  any  of  the  primeval  prairies  anywhere, 
noAv,"  said  Colonel  Johnson,  "  outside  of  the  Indian  territory  and 
some  remote  portions  of  Texas;  the  land  has  afi  been  taken  up.'" 

"What  a  change  in  nine  years!  It  seems  as  if  settlers  uuist 
have  pouri'd  in  Iutc  in  a  perfect  Hood.  When  I  was  out  here  in  "SI 
I  used  to  (hive   with   Colonel  Haren  for  miles  and  miles  over  the 


THE    ORUISK    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


61 


''^-T;^' 


ojH'ii  inaiiits  and  there  wasii  't   such   a   thin<;-  as  a   lioiise    in   sight," 
said  Eliot. 

"  Tlie  frontier  days  were  only  just  over  then,"  remarked  Mr. 
Gleed  ;  '"  at  Newton,  now  a  handsome,  good-sized  city,  where  the 
passenocis  of  this  train  take  supper  this  evening,  there  was  nothing 
but  a  tough  settlement  of  shanties ;  it  was  the  end  of  the  track  then, 
and  in  the  eonstruetion  of  railroads  out  in 
this  country  the  '  end  of  the  track  '  has  al- 
ways been  a  rough  place,  with  lawlessness, 
gambling,  and  all  sorts  of  crime, 
including  Lynch  law.  Just  out-  -^— 
side  of  the  town  there  is  a  little 
patch  of  ground  called  '  Boot  v_ 
Hill '  graveyard  where  those  are 
buried  who   '  died  with  their  boots  ^, 

on  ; '  that  is  to  say.  who  met  with 
a  violent  death.  Eleven  men  were  shot  ai 
But  within  one  year  from  that  time  Newton 
quiet  anil  orderlv  connuunities  in  America, 
since.  Some  of  our  young  towns  here  ii 
histories,  for  all  their  few  years." 

"  Where  is  Father  Swemberg  now  ?  "  asked  Eliot. 

"  He  died  in  Florida  two  or  three  years  ago,  '  replied  Mr.  Gleed. 

"  Father  Swemberg  was  the  pioneer  Catholic  priest  in  Kansas, 
west  of  Topeka,"  ex])lained  Eliot.  "  I  spent  a  delightful  evening 
with  him  in  his  house  in  Newton,  listening  to  his  stories  of 
adventine  on  the  plains  and  among  the  Indiai'.s.  lie  once  saw  a 
battle  between  the  troops  and  the  Indians.      One  of  the  soldiers  who 


1    killed  in 

one   night. 

ivame  one 

of  the  most 

md    has  b. 

■en   so    ever 

Kansas  ha 

ve   eventful 

62  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

Avas  killed  happened  to  fall  near  an  ant-hill,  and  within  a  few  houi-ij 
after  that  his  skull  was  picked  up  eaten  smooth  hy  the  ants,  and 
looking-  as  if  it  had  been  polished.  He  showed  nie  the  skull  in  his 
collection  of  relics." 

"  Do  you  remember  his  yellow  cat  ?  "  asked  jNIr.  Gleed.  "  We 
have  it  in  our  Kansas  Historical  Society  now.  It  was  an  Indian 
toljacco  2)ouch,  made  of  the  entire  skin  of  a  yellow  pussy,  stripped 
off,  as  the  Indians  do,  without  cutting-  it  open,  and  ornamented  with 
beads  and  strips  of  red  flannel.  Very  likely  they  ate  the  cat.  It  is 
a  valuable  relic,  for  it  came  from  the  last  emigrant  train  attacked 
by  the  Indians  in  Kansas.  It  was  when  the  Arrapahoes  and  Chey- 
ennes  broke  out  from  the  Indian  territory  in  1879  and  left  a  trail  of 
blood  and  ashes  across  this  State  from  South  to  North,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  broken  promises  of  the  authorities  at  Washhigtou  — 
a  chapter  in  our  '  Century  of  Dishonor  '  that  cost  scores  of  innocent 
]iv(;s  and  an  enormous  amount  of  money.  Everybody  felt  secure 
tlien,  for  there  had  been  2>eace  for  a  long-  time,  and  the  country  was 
fairlv  well  settled.  That  yellow  cat  was  probably  the  i)et  pussy  of 
some  family  that  was  taking  it  from  the  old  home  to  the  new. 
Everybody  was  killed.  The  jioucb  was  taken  from  the  Indians 
Avhen  they  were  captured,  and  was  given  to  Father  Swemberg  by  the 
officer  who  had  it.  Father  Swemberg  gave  it  to  my  friend  Baxter, 
who  last  year  sent  it  by  me,  when  I  was  in  Boston,  to  the  Historical 
Society.  Only  eleven  years  ag<i  last  December  was  tliat  terrihle 
time,  when  all  Kansas  was  panic-stricken  !  And  now  it  seems  like 
ancient  history !  " 

Their  friends  took  supper  Avith  them  before  they  reached  New- 
ton, where  they  left  them  to  take  the  branch  train  for  Wichita,  on 


THK    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  63 

the  line  that  runs  tlir(Mii;li  Oklalioiiia  and  Texas  down  to  tlie  Gulf 
of  Mexico  at  Galveston. 

When  Han-y  lifted  his  window  curtain  the  next  morning-  his 
first  thought  was  that  he  was  on  board  the  Brynhilda  and  looking- 
at  a  suiuisc  on  the  ocean.  The  Hat,  hrown  plain  stretched  away  to 
the  lu)rizt)n  without  a  break.  The  sky  was  perfectly  cloudless  anil 
the  sun  was  just  appearing,  a  great  glittering  ball,  over  this  rim  of 
the  world.  But  Harry  also  heard  the  wind  shrieking  outside  and 
felt  the  car  perceptibly  leaning  southward  under  the  steady  pressiu-e 
of  the  blast,  and  he  knew  that  in  such  a  gale  all  that  expanse 
would  be  furrowed  with  heaving  swells  and  crested  with  white-caps 
were  it  really  the  ocean.  But  the  illusion  was  very  lu^ar,  and  the 
vast,  dreary  plain  was  taken  to  his  heart  by  reason  of  the  resem- 
blance. 

When  he  and  Eliot  stejiped  out  onto  tlie  "  (juarter-deck  "  for  a 
whiff  of  morning  air,  they  did  not  stay  long,  though  wrapjjcd  .in 
their  ulsters,  for  the  keen  fierce  wind,  blowing  from  the  north,  cut 
like  knives  Avith  the  fine  dust  whirled  from  the  frozen  plain.  "  Here 
we  are,  well  into  Colorado,  and  over  four  thousand  feet  abovi'  the 
sea,"   said  Eliot,  as  they  hurried  back  into  the  parlor. 

"  Well  bovs,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley,  when  he  joined  them,  shortly 
after,  "  judging  by  the  looks  of  things  outside,  and  l)y  what  we  know 
of  the  real  Mexican  climate,  it  doesn 't  seem  as  if  this  used  to  be 
Mexico.  Hnarrr!  how  cold  it  must  l)e  !  But  we  have  the  consola- 
tion of  knowing  that  we  shall  soon  be  out  of  it,  and  meanwhile  this 
is   soUd    comfort    in    here,    isn't    it,  now?" 

The  whuhiws  on  tiie  northern  side  were  covered  with  frost. 
Mr.  Brinklev,    touching  an    electric    button,  said.  wluMi    the    jingling 


64  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

call  was  answered :  "  George,  just  bring  a  little  alcohol  and  nib 
down  those  windows  on  this  side,  so  we  can  see  out !  There  isn  't 
nuifh  to  see,  just  now,"  he  continued,  turning  to  his  nephews,  "  but 
prett)'  soon  we  shall  have  the  Rockies  in  sight  for  all  day  from 
that  side." 

The  windows  were  soon  clear  of  frost,  under  George's  manipula- 
tion, and  it  did  not  reappear.  "  The  alcohol  prevents  the  freezing 
of  the  moisture  which  the  cold  glass  woidd  otherwise  condense  from 
the  air,"   Mr.  Brinkley  explained. 

"  That  is  a  pointer  worth  remembering,"  said  Eliot. 
"  It  is  the  way  they  keep  the  show-windows   of   the  city   sliops 
clear  on  cold  winter  days,  and  now  I  always  try  it  on  the  cars  in 
cold  weather,  when  I  want  to  see  out  !  " 

"  So  Mexico  used  to  reach  way  up  here  ?  "  queried  Harry. 
« Yes  —  before  our  war  with  Mexico,  when  we  took  away  so 
large  a  part  of  her  territory,  and  before  Texas  became  an  independ- 
ent republic,  Mexico  was  one  of  the  largest  countries  in  the  world, 
in  extent  of  territory.  All  of  California,  New  Mexico  and  Arizona, 
and  nearly  all  of  Utah  and  Nevada,  together  with  the  greater  part 
of  Colorado,  beside  Texas,  belonged  to  Mexico." 

"  There 's  one  thing  to  be  said  in  our  favor,  however."  said 
Kliot,  ''  and  that  is,  that  if  we  hadn  't  taken  that  territory,  our 
American  civilization  would  not  liavc  spread  as  it  lias;  all  that 
country  would  liave  remained  un<levclo]H'd,  for  Mexico  hadn  "t  the 
means  to  de\('lo[)  it." 

"  Probably  not,"  re])lic(l  his  uncle.  /'If  we  iiad  not  taken  it.  it 
would  most  hkely  have  made  the  history  nf  the  civilized  world  lor 
the  past  forty  years  very   dilVcivnt    lioni    what   it   is.      The    racilic 


lUTISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


65 


railways  would  not  have  been  built,  a  large  portion  of  the  immigra- 
tion to  this  country  Avould  have  gone  to  other  parts  of  the  world,  and 
the  relation  of  the  various  countries  to  each  other  now  would  there- 
fore be  quite  different.  But  tlie  fact  that  great  good  has  come  out 
of  it  docs  not  make  the  action  of  tlic  Unitc<l  States  any  l)etter ;  it 
was  an  intended  piece  of  wrong-doing  on  our  part,  and  the  real 
object  of  the  Mexican  war  was  to  gain  possession  of  all  this 
land  and  so  make  more  room  for  the  extension  of  slavery.  It  so 
turned  out,  though,  that  slavery  did  not  gain  foothold  in  anv  of 
the  accpiired  territory,  except  in  Texas,  which  was  aheadv  an 
independent  State." 

"But  as  we  paid  Mexico  for  the  territory  very   handsoiuelv,  it  is 
denied  that  we  stole  it,"  said  Eliot 

"  Yes,  that  is  the  way  we  have  tried  to  ease  our    national   con- 
science, and  make  good  the  claim  that  we  have  not  extended  our 
boundaries  after   the  manner  of   the  Old 
World  monarchies.     But  the  fact  remains, 
the  war  with  Mexico  was  a  \var   of    con- 
quest.     That    we   paid  for  what  we  took 
does    not    alter    the    case,    for    we    forced 
Mexico    to    sell.     If    a    man    enters    vour 
liouse    and   compels  you   to   make   over   to 
him  a  third  of  your  land,  holding  a  pistol      ^ 
to    your  head  until  you   sign    tiie   deed,    it 
is  rol)l)ery,  even  though   lie  pays  yon  the 
full  value  of  the  property  he  wants.      No, 
my  boys,  it  is  not  ])atriotic  to  try  to  make 
out  that  the  wrong  our  country  has  done 


66  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

was  right.  We  must  look  upon  our  national  sins  as  upon  our  own ; 
acknowledge  them,  and  do  our  best  to  make  things  go  right  in  the 
future.  That  is  true  patriotism.  That  is  the  way  to  make  our 
country  truly  great." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

WITH       PROW       TI'RXED       SOUTHWAKI). 

^^T  AND  ho!"  sliouted  Hanv,  some  little  time  after.  lie  had 
been  looking-  intently  off  towards  the  right,  and  now  he  saw, 
off  in  the  distance  towards  the  northwest,  a  pyramidal  mass  brightly 
white  in  the  sunshine,  against  tlie  clear  sky  ;  its  base  invisi])le  below 
the  horizon  line. 

"  Yes,  that  is  Pike's  Peak,"  said  Eliot,  looking  hi  the  direction 
where  Harry  pointed.  "  Now  we  shall  kee})  within  sight  of  the 
Rockies  all  the  rest  of  the  day,  and  by  noon  shall  be  in  amongst 
them." 

"  It  seems  just  like  land  appearing  from  out  at  sea,"  said  Harry, 
gazing-  at  the  great  peak.  "  Like  the  Camden  Hills  as  you  approach 
the  Penobscot  Bay,  for  instance  !  " 

"  All  those  mountains  had  Spanish  names,  and  many  of  them  re- 
main yet,"  Eliot  remarked.  "  From  now  on,  things  will  get  more 
and  more  Mexican  in  character.  The  Spanish  influence  shades 
g-radually  off  towards  the  north.  The  civilization  grows  cruder  and 
mixes  more  and  more  with  the  Indians,  who  form  the  selvage,  s<j  to 
speak,  where  the  Mexican  culture  fringes  away  into  the  wilderness. 
Even  the  A\ild  tribes,  like  the  Navajos,  Apaches  and  Utes,  have 
some  Spanish  customs,  and  the  few  civilized  words  that  they  sjjcak 
are  Spanish,  rather  th;in  English.  Finally  here  in  the  north  the 
names  of  places  are  all  that  remain  to  (ell  of  Spanish  occupation. 
When  Coronado  came  up  into  New  Mexico  on   his  march  of  discov- 


68  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

ery  and  conquest,  he  came  at  least  as  far  as  we  are  now,  and  by 
many  it  is  thought  he  went  as  far  as  Nebraska.  He  came  in  search 
of  the  '  Seven  Cities  of  Cibola '  of  which  exaggerated  tales  were 
brought  to  Spain,  and  those  seven  cities  have  now  been  fully  iden- 
tified by  Frank  H.  Cushing  and  Adolph  F.  Bandelier  as  the  seven 
towns  of  the  Zuiii  nation  that  then  existed.  The  name  of  this  State 
is  Spanish,  you  know,  and  comes  from  the  Colorado  river,  which 
means  '  red.'  Some  of  the  people  out  here  call  it  '  Coloraydo,'  mak- 
ing the  common  English  mistake  of  pronouncing  according  to  the 
spelling,  instead  of  as  they  hear  it.  So  it  happens  that  people  who 
can  't  read  often  get  nearer  the  original  pronunciations  than  those 
who  can." 

"  I  suppose  the  name  of  that  Ute  chief,  '  Colorow,'  came  from 
Colorado,"  said  Harry. 

"  Yes,  it  is  the  same  word.  The  Spanish  pronounce  the  (/,  be- 
tween vowels,  like  th  in  this,  but  very  lightly,  so  that  in  dialects  it 
is  often  dropped  out  altogether,  so  that  the  termination  ado  becomes 
ao,  which  has  the  same  sound  as  ow  in  how." 

"  Here  beginneth  our  first  lesson  in  Spanish  !  "  said  Florence. 

"  Yes,  and  you  must  keej)  it  up  for  us  right  along  now,  Eliot," 
uro-ed  Harry.  "  I  noticed,"  he  continueil,  ''  that  the  train-men,  at 
the  breakfast  station  this  morning,  called  the  place  '  La  Hunter.'  " 

"  They  get  much  nearer  the  right  pronunciation  in  that  than  in 
Coloraydo  or  Nevaychi.  If  they  would  only  ])rou()uncc  the  ii  as  in 
bull,  or  put,  they  would  be  almost  convct,  lor  the  sound  of,/ is 
much  like  that  o!  our  //.  only  nioic  Forcible,  making  it  a  guttural, 
like  i\w  German  vh,  in  r/r//.  and  just  as  our  ,jli  used  to  l.c  in  Old 
English." 


THE    CUUISK    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  Oy 

When  thev  came  to  Tiinidad,  the  <;reat  town  in  southern  Colo- 
rado, EHot  explained  tliat  tlie  termination  (hiil  in  S])ani.sh  had  the 
same  meanino-  as  ///  in  f]n<;lish,  as  in  cdrldad,  charity;  (niiisffid, 
amity,  etc.  And  the  d,  at  the  end,  was  spoken  Uke  the  f/i  in  with, 
only  very  lightly. 

"  What  a  strange-looking-  mountain  !  "  exclaimed  Florence,  at 
the  sight  of  the  lofty  flat-topped  elevation,  with  step-like  sides, 
towering  grandly  ahove  the  town. 

"•  It  seems  more  like  a  work  of  art  than  of  nature,  —  as  if  it  had 
been  built  by  a  race  of  giants !  "   said  Florence,  and   Mr.  Brinkley 
told  how   these    »ie- 
san,    or   table-moun- 
tains,   were    charac- 
teristic of   the  land-  ^^'^^ 
scape  in  New  Mexico,      =--»"",  ^ 

and    some    archaeol-      ^   f  ^'  ^  *    f    ,         _3»     — 

ogists    thought    that  y^  ^.    ^ 

thev     might    liave  ini/^'^^^<, ^<h 

given  tlie  suggestion 

for  the  teocalis  of  the  Aztecs,  the  grtsat  jtyramid-like  mounds  with 
terraced  sides.  Mr.  Cashing,  in  his  researches  among  the  Zunis  and 
the  remains  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona 
has  shown  how  they  had  their  shrines  for  sacrifice  and  secret  ceremo- 
nials among  the  mountains.  -He  has  also  shown  how  the  Aztec  cult- 
ure must  have  originated  here  in  the  North.  Holding  these  terraced 
mountains  sacred  in  their  traditions  the  Aztecs  might  naturally  seek 
to  imitate  them  in  building  great  pyramids  for  places  of  worship. 

This  Trinidad  mountain  was  in  the  Raton  range,  over  which 
spur  of    the   Rockies,   running  eastward   off  into  the  plains,   their 


70  THE    CRUISE    or    A    LAND-YACHT. 

southward  course  now  lay.  '' Jid/o/i  means  mouse,"  Eliot  explained, 
''and  rata  is  Sjjanisli  for  rats."  They  were  now  in  among  the  foot- 
hills, and  were  soon  climbing  a  heavy  grade,  winding  tortuously  up 
a  narrow  valley  where  tall  pines  were  growing  on  the  brown  slopes. 
Here  and  there,  amid  cidtivated  patches,  stood  the  luits  of  Mexi- 
cans, who  still  form  a  considerable  element  in  the  jjopulation  of 
Southern  Coh)rado.  "  Isn 't  that  coal?"  asked  Harry,  pointing  to 
long  dark  streaks  in  the  rofk  of  the  ledges  through  which  the  way 
was  frequently  cut. 

"  Yes,"  answered  Eliot,  "this  is  one  of  the  best  soft-coal  regions 
west  of  the  Mississippi;  from  the  other  side  of  the  mountain 
thousands  of  tons  of  coal  are  carried  way  down  as  far  as  even  the 
City  of  Mexico  every  year." 

Their  way  lay  across  the  shoulder  of  the  mountain  they  had  seen 
towering  so  high  above  Trinidad,  and  now  and  then  they  came  into 
sight  of  its  flat  top,  nearer  and  nearer,  ever  changing  shape  according 
to  the  point  of  view.  The  country  opened  out  behind  them,  and  off 
through  the  valleys  the  grand  panorama  of  the  Rocky  .Mountains 
became  more  and  more  extensive,  with  a  procession  of  snowy  sununits 
disappearmg  into  the  distance.  Nearest  of  these  was  tiie  beautiful 
group  of  Spanish  peaks,  and,  beyond,  the  Sangre  de  Cristo  Range, 
—  the  Mountains  of  the  Blood  of  Christ. 

"Why,  what  is  the  matter?  —  !  feel  almost  out  of  l)reath  !  " 
cried  Florence. 

■'  So  do  1  !  "  cried  Harry.  "  1  feel  just  as  if  1  had  been  running  a 
foot-race." 

"  So  say  we  all  of  us  !  "  said  Eliot.  "  It  is  tlie  altitude.  We  are 
al  a  considerable   elevation  now,  and   the  air  is  so  rare   that    it  takes 


THE    CUITISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


71 


a  much  larger  iiicasmc  of  it  to  supply  our  liuii^s.  If  you  liad  ^ct 
off  tlie  tiaiu  cvfu  at  La  .luuta  tliis  uioiuiui;-  aud  attempted  to  run, 
vou  would  have  felt  the  difference.  And  now  we  are  almost  twice 
us  high." 

"  The  two  locomotives,  oiu'  ahead  aud  the  other  ])ushin<;-  he- 
hind,  were  putHug  rapidly  and  loudly  in  their  work  of  getthig-  the 
long  train  up  the  steep  ascent.  "  It  sounds  as  if  those  engines  were 
getting  out  of  lueath  too  !  "  said  Harry. 

"  So  it  does  !  "  assented  Eliot.  "  I  wonder  if  it  has  ever  heen 
fio-ured  out,"  he  reflected,  "  whether  there  is  any  material  difference 
in  making  steam  at  a  considerahle  altitude.  You  know  the  evapora- 
tion is  so  much  greater,  and  water  hoils  at  a  temperature  so  much 
lower,  that  it  ought  to  take  a  much  less  quantity  of  fuel  to  make  a 
given  amount  of  steam.  But  probahly  the  difference  is  more 
theoretical  than  practical,  and  so  does  not  come  into  account.  But 
here  we  are  at  the  summit,  seven  thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty- 
two  feet  above  sea-level." 

'•  That  is,  almost  a  mile  and  a  half  perpendicular  above  the 
Brynhilda,"  Hgured  Harry. 

"So  tliat,  if  we  could  only  keep  on  out  into  space  at  tliis  level 
the  Ariadne  would  make  a  j)retty  good  air-ship  !  "  observed  Mr. 
Brinkley. 

"We  are  just  a  little  higher  at  this  jioint  than  the  City  of 
Mexico,  and  the  two  highest  points  wi'  rea<h  on  our  way  there,  after 
this,  are  not  very  much  higher  than  where  we  are  now  —  Zacatecas, 
eight  thousand  and  sixty-five  feet,  and  Manpiez,  ju.st  outside  the 
Valley  of  Mexico,  eight  thousand  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  feet." 

They  had  come  to  a  stop.     As  the  locomotive  in  the    rear    cut 


72  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

loose  and  backed  away,  Mabel  remarked.  ••  Tin-  way  that  engine 
drops  us  and  backs  with  a  sort  of  lioht,  happy  puff,  puff,  putt', 
sounds  like  a  sigh  of  relief  at  the  end  of  a  hard  piece  of  work.  A 
great  machine  like  that  really  seems  as  if  it  must  have  intelligence 
and  sensation  of  its  own  !  " 

"  I  often  think  it  does,"  said  Harry,  thoughtfully.  "  The  Bryn- 
iiilda  actually  seems  to  me  as  if  she  were  alive." 

"  Everything  made  by  human  hands  is  an  embodiment  of  human 
intelligence,  just  as  we  living  beings  are  an  embodiment  of  divine 
inteUigence,"  said  Mrs.  Brinkley. 

As  the  train  started  forward,  Eliot  pointed  to  a  series  of  railway 
embankments  up  the  mountain-side  to  the  right.  "  That  is  the  old 
'  switchback,'  "  he  said.  "  It  was  built  so  that  trains  could  get  across 
the  mountain  while  they  were  building  the  tunnel.  The  trains 
woidd  zigzag  to  and  fro  on  that,  switching  back  and  forwards,  and 
getting  over  the  mountain  that  way.  They  saved  several  months  in 
pushing  the  line  ahead  into  New  Mexico,  by  that  means." 

Thev  plnnged  into  a  tunnel,  where  the  darkness  seemed  to 
last  a  long  time,  although  in  reality  it  was  but  a  few  minutes. 
While  passing  through,  Eliot  said  :  "'  This  is  the  only  tunnel  on  our 
whole  route  between  Pittsbiug  and  the  City  of  ^Mexico,  and  if  we 
had  o-one  by  way  of  Washington,  New  Orleans  and  Texas,  wc  might 
have  taken  a  route  without  a  single  tinmel.  1  wonder  if  it  wonld 
be  possible  to  take  a  railway  journey  so  long  in  the  Old  World  with- 
out a  tuniH'l.  It  seems  remarkable  engineering  to  go  liie  length  of 
a  mountainons  conntry  like  Mexico  with  sncli  liglit  work  as  that 
proves  !  All,  lure  we  are  in  New  Mexico  !  We  i)asscd  the  dividing 
Ihie  in  the  tunnel.  Now  let  us  step  out  onto  the  '  cpiartei--deck  "  for 
a  while.  ' 


TIIK    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  ( O 

Tlu-v  l(i()l<fcl  oil'  over  a  o-lacldening-  prospect.  The  noonday  air 
was  c-alni,  and  in  its  rare  i)uritv  it  had  a  pleasant  taste  like  clean 
spring  water  in  the  woodland.  At  tlie  end  of  the  broadening  valley, 
away  off  below,  there  stretched  the  vast  brown  plains  of  eastern 
New  Mexico  basking  in  sunny  silence  —  spreadmg  out  to  the  even 
horizon  like  the  ocean.  On  the  right  the  chain  of  the  Rockies  tended 
southward  like  the  bold  coast  of  a  continent.  "  I  declare  it  seems 
southern  already  !  "  declared  Florence. 

"  Well,"  smiled  her  father,  "  New  Mexico  is  hardly  the  land  of 
bananas  or  oranges.  We  are  still  north  of  North  Carolina,  though 
lines  of  latitude  do  not  tell  so  much  as  many  other  things  in  the 
matter  of  dunate.  Here  it  is  January,  and  here  we  are,  you  have 
just  heard  how  high,  and  yet  it  is  pleasantly  warm  out  here  in  the 
air.  We  have  entered  the  belt  of  ahuost  perpetual  sunshine,  and  at 
mid-day,  even  in  winter,  the  temperature  is  usually  agreeably  nidd. 
But  the  nights  are  nipping." 

They  skirted  the  chain  of  the  Rockies  all  day,  and  constantly 
watched  the  changing  forms  of  the  sinnmits.  Sometimes  they  were 
winding  among  the  foothills,  and  sometimes  far  out  on  the  plains, 
where  cattle  were  almost  cvi-r  in  sight,  feeding  on  the  crisp,  short 
grass,  cured  into  standing  hay  in  that  dry  air.  "  I  have  often  seen 
herds  of  antelojje  from  the  train,  along  here,  but  they  are  getting 
rare  now  and  it  is  doubtful  if  we  would  see  them  anyway,  at  this 
time  of  year,"  said  Eliot.  "  You  see  those  little  mounds  on  the 
plain?  That  is  a  town  of  prairie-dogs.  The  nun-rv  little  creatures 
are  now  cuddled  up  fast  asleep  in  their  nndciground  houses  for  tlie 
winter.  If  it  were  summer,  you  might  see  them  sitting  u]t  on  those 
hillocks,  barking  at  us  as  we  went  by.     I  can  tell  you  a  curions  thing 


74  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

iihoiit  tlieni  that  you  never  have  seen  in  any  natural  history,  I  '11 
warrant.  Every  one  of  these  towns  has  a  set  of  bachelors  antl  old 
maids  in  the  community.  All  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants  mate, 
but  these  refuse  to.  So  the  married  ones  decline  to  have  anything 
to  do  with  them,  and  make  them  live  off  in  the  outskirts  where  they 
form  little  colonies  by  themselves — sort  of  monks  and  nuns  !  Frank 
Gushing-  told  me  that  one  tune,  out  at  Fort  Wingate,  near  Zuni.  It 
is  a  sample  of  many  curious  bits  of  learning  he  has  acquired  through 
intimacy  with  the  Indians.  I  tell  you,  those  sons  of  Nature  have 
a  store  of  facts  in  Natural  History  that  the  scientists  have  n't  caught 
onto  yet !  " 

It  was  after  dark  when  they  arrived  at  the  busy  city  of  Las 
Vegas,  The  MeadoAvs,  as  Eliot  explained  it  meant. 

"  These  Spanish  names  of  places  seem  more  poetic  than  our 
English  names,"  he  said,  "  on  account  of  their  more  beautiful  sound, 
for  the  language  is  a  noble  one  with  its  broad,  simple  vowels  and 
its  smooth-flowing  character.  But  in  reality,  those  names  are,  for 
the  most  part,  just  as  commonplace  as  ours.  For  instance,  such 
names  as  Las  Tres  Hemiunas,  the  Three  Sisters ;  EI  Cerro  Blanco, 
the  Wliitc  Hill ;  El  llio  JIoiulo,  the  Deep  River,  are  very 
coiiuuon."' 

"It  already  seems  foreign,  —  this  country  that  we  have  been 
through  today,  although  it  is  a  part  of  the  United  States,"  said 
Florence. 

"  Yes,  but  it  is  rapidly  getting  Americanized  now,"  Eliot  replied. 
"  Ten  years  ago  it  seemed  as  remote  from  the  East  as  Central 
America  does  today,  and  even  more  unknown.  The  Mexican  popu- 
lation of  this  territory   is  still  in  a   cousidcralile  majority,    but   the 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  75 

Aiufiicaii  iiiiiiii<;T;itinii  has  been  very  large  since  the  railways  were 
built  and  a  remarkable  change  has  co'ne  over  the  country.  The; 
towns  along  the  railway,  like  Las  Vegas  and  Albuquerque,  whivh 
were  previously  sleepy  and  primitive  Mexican  places,  are  now  as  wide- 
awake and  go-ahead  as  our  modern  towns  in  the  East  or  West. 
Just  look  out  the  Avindow  here  !  Tiook  at  the  electric- lights  and 
the  street-cars,  and  the  substantial  business  blocks  !  And  in  the 
town  you  would  see  many  tasteful  houses,  with  nice  lawns  and  gar- 
dens. The  uncouthness  of  the  frontier  is  a  rare  thing  everywhere, 
now,  and  in  the  most  remote  States  and  Territories  you  will  find  in 
the  leading  places,  at  least,  and  often  in  obscure  corners  of  the 
wilderness,  all  the  luxuries  and  refinements  of  modern  civilization. 
But  here  in  New  Mexico,  as  in  some  parts  of  California  and  Arizona, 
the  (hiving  and  pushing  American  life  has  a  stronger  effect  of  new- 
ness, by  reason  of  there  being  beside  it  a  large  and  easy-going 
Mexican  population  that  retains  many  of  its  original  traits,  altliough 
clearly  influenced  by  its  new  surroundings." 

The  evening  was  cleai-,  sharp  and  cold.  From  Las  Vegas  their 
course  was  westerly  for  several  hours,  across  the  mountains  down 
into  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande.  While  Eliot  was  telling  them 
stories  of  New  Mexico,  with  which  he  was  well  supplied  —  the 
romances  of  treasin-e-hunting,  of  Indian-iighting,  of  the  American 
occiq)ation  at  the  time  of  the  Mexican  war,  of  the  conquest  by  the 
Spaniards,  accounts  of  the  Pueblo  Lidians  and  their  strange  customs 
that  he  had  learned  fr(mi  Gushing  and  Bandclicr  and  of  the  pioneer 
days  of  railway-building  —  they  occasionally  looked  out  into  the 
night  at  the  dark  masses  of  the  nu>untains  that  loomed  about  tliem 
as  theii-  train  toiled  slowly  up  long  grades  or  sjied  down  into  lower 
levels. 


76  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

"  I  suppose  New  Mexico  will  soon  be  ii  State,"  said  Mr.  Biiiikley- 
"  But  it  is  ridiculous  to  give  it  the  name  of  '  Montezuma,'  as  recently 
proposed.  That  name,  as  well  as  that  of  '  Aztec,'  has  been  worn 
threadbare  in  connection  with  this  region.  The  Indians  here  were 
not  Aztecs,  and  Montezuma  had  no  more  to  do  with  New  INIexico 
than  he  did  with  New  England.  The  present  name  is  good  enough 
for  the  State,  for  it  is  historic  and  was  early  given  to  it  by  the 
Spaniards." 

"  Yes,"  said  Eliot ;  "  one  of  the  old  and  principal  streets  in  the 
City  of  Mexico  is  the  Calle  de  Nuevo  Mexico,  or  New  Mexico 
street." 

"  One  of  the  early  names  given  to  this  region  was  EI  nuevo 
rein(j  de  San  Francisco,  (the  New  Kingdom  of  San  Francisco),  and 
it  was  also  known  as  the  Province  of  Santa  Fe,  after  the  Spanish 
custom  of  usually  naming  the  provinces  of  Mexico  after  theii*  chief 
cities,"  continued  Mr.  Brinkley.  "  But,  if  the  name  be  changed, 
the  most  appropriate  thing  would  l)e  to  call  the  new  State  '  Cibola." 
which  would  be  not  only  a  beautiful  name,  l)ut  ai)i)r()priate,  for  it 
was  the  land  of  Cibola  that  Coroaado  set  out  in  search  of  on  his 
famous  march." 

"  Do  you  know  we  are  at  the  southern  end  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tain chain  ?  "  asked  Eliot.  "  This  is  the  Santa  Fe  Range  to  the 
right,  and  southward  of  liere  there  are  no  more  |ierpetually  snowy 
peaks  until  we  reach  the  City  of  Mexico.  Santa  Fc  — la  \'illa  real 
de  Santa  Fe,  the  Royal  Village  of  the  Holy  Faith,  as  tlie  Spaniards 
(•all  it  — nestles  beautifnlly  on  the  table-land  at  tlie  foot  of  Old 
Baldy.  It  is  a  (|uaint  old  place,  and  1  wish  you  might  see  it.  But 
we  might  have  a  pretty  cold  day  up  there  this  time  of  year,  althougii 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  /  / 

the  air  is  glorious.  It  is  almost  as  liloli  as  the  City  of  Mexico, 
though  it  is  much  warmer  in  suiuincr,  in  spite  of  being  ahuost  fifteen 
hundred  miles  farther  north.  Or  ratlier.  hecanse  it  is  so  mucli 
farther  north,  since  tlie  snninier  sun  stays  ahove  the  horizon  longer, 
anil  so  the  earth  gets  heated  np  more  and  cooled  oil'  less  than  in 
the  tropics.  And  then  in  ^lexico  the  almost  daily  rains  in  tiie 
summer  cool  the  air. 

"  But,  as  T  was  saying,  the  Rocky  Mountains  end  here.  The 
general  mountain  system  continues  southward,  hut  its  character 
changes  ;  the  ranges  are  not  continuous.  The  summits  are  lower, 
and  the  mountains  are  hroken  up  into  separate  grou])s,  rising  from 
the  plains  like  islands  from  the  ocean." 

The  next  morning  they  were  far  down  the  valley  of  the  Rio 
Grande,  hut  had  left  the  river  hefore  daybreak,  and  when  Harry  got 
up  they  were  passing  over  the  l)are,  high  plain  to  the  eastward  of 
the  stream.  "  This,"  said  Eliot  "  is  the  Jonimhi  (h-  }fn('rte,  the 
Journey  of  Death,  as  the  Spaniards  named  it.  for  in  tiie  old  days, 
the  route  between  the  South  and  Santa  Fe  lay  over  tiiis  waterless 
plain  and  often  men  and  animals  would  perish  of  thirst." 

The  yellowish  brown  grassy  surface  was  thickly  sprinkled  with 
dark  lumps  of  lava  rocU.  and  the  sharp  contours  of  mountain  groups 
rose  all  around,  near  and  far,  the  higher  ones  glistening  with  their 
mantles  of  winter  snow.  It  was  still  cold,  but  not  severely  so,  and 
it  seemed  like  a  pleasant  morning  in  late  October.  As  the  sun 
mounted  in  the  sky  it  grew  agreeably  warm,  and  it  was  a  pleasure 
to  jump  down  and  run  about  every  time  the  train  sto|)ped  at  the 
stations,  where  usually  there  was  nothing  but  water-tanivs  and  the 
houses  for  the  section-hands. 


78  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

"  It  seems  almost  pathetic  to  see  these  Httle  gardens  about  those 
houses  here  m  the  desert,"  said  Mabel,  as  they  noticed  the  enclosures 
^N-ith  the  remains  of  what  had  been  summer  flowers,  cherished 
evidently  ^v-ith  tender  care,  and  now  witliered  and  rustling  in  the 
winter  wind. 

"  But  they  are  a  charming  sight  in  sunnner,"  said  Eliot.  "  And 
look  at  those  trees  ;  how  they  have  shot  up  !  And  those  great  yuccas, 
so  uuu'h  bigger  and  sturdier  than  those  we  see  on  the  plains.  It  is 
water  in  abimdance  that  does  that,  under  this  sunsliiiK-.  The  rail- 
way water-tanks,  where  modern  skill  has  sunk  wells  in  tlie  dry  desert, 
have  made  l)right  little  oases  in  the  Jourm-y  of  Death.  You  see 
they  keep  some  cattle  along  the  railway  line  now;  tliere  is  good 
grass  everywhere,  but  off  there  a  few  miles  cattle  cannot  live,  for  it 
is  too  far  from  water." 

At  Rincon  they  descended  again  into  the  bottom  lands  of  the  Rio 
Grande  —  broad  and  level,  richly  cxdtivated,  ^\^th  irrigating  ditches 
running  in  every  direction  and  bordered  by  long  lines  of  great  bare 
trees  that  made  Harry  think  of  processions  marcliing  across  the 
country  in  single  file.  Soon  they  plunged  into  a  range  of  mountains 
through  which  the  river  dashed  rapidly  in  a  narrow,  wild  gorge,  the 
track  running  close  beside  the  stream,  at  some  height  above  the 
water.  On  the  other  side  of  these  mountains  they  stopped  for  a  few 
minutes  at  the  old  military  post  of  Fort  Selden,  with  thick-walled 
buildings  oi'  adol)c.  and  Eliot  pointed  out  across  the  river,  just  op- 
posite the  Toit,  the  lieiglits  of  ISIount  Roble,  where  Prof.  Davidson 
observed  the  transit  of  Venus  in  1SS2.  tbis  clear  air  ..IVcring  the 
best  op]i()rtunity  ior  astroiioniicnl  obseivation. 

■•  l!,>l,lr  is  Sjianisii  lor  oak.  and  (nruia  lor  live-oak.  llie  evei- 
o-ii-en  six'cies  tliat  grows  in  warmer  counlries."  said  EHot. 


THE    CKUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  79 

"What  (loos  Riiicon  mean  —  tlie  iiainc  of  the  junction  station 
jnst  l)i'roic  this?"  asked  Fhn-enee. 

"Yon  jirononnee  it  as  if  it  rhymed  with  Lincohi,"  replied  Eliot, 
with  a  laugh.  "  It  is  the  rule  in  Spanish  to  accent  the  last  syllable 
of  Avords  endino-  in  consonants.  And  each  vowel  has  but  one  soimd. 
This  is  the  way :  Rin-ro//( .  It  means  inside  corner.  Spanish  has 
two  words  for  corner,  that  on  the  outside  of  the  angle  being  called 
the  esquina  (jironouneed  cx-kce-na).'' 

They  came  out  into  another  broad  ajid  cultivated  2)lain,  bordered 
on  the  eastward  by  a  range  of .  sharply  serrated  mountains,  —  Los 
Organos,  so  called  from  their  resemblance  to  organ  pipes.  "  This  is 
the  Mesilla  valley,  purchased  from  Mexico  subsequent  to  the  an- 
nexation of  New  Mexico,  under  the  Gadsden  treaty.  It  is  very  fer- 
tile, as  you  can  see  by  the  way  it  is  cultivated.  Before  the  purchase 
the  boundary  line  ran  just  the  other  side  of  the  town  of  Las  Cruces, 
this  station  where  we  are  stopping  now.  There  were  many  patriotic 
Mexicans  here  who  objected  to  living  under  the  American  flag  and 
so  they  went  across  the  Ime  and  settled  the  pretty  town  of  Mesilla, 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Rio  Grande.  But  fate  was  against  them  ; 
when  this  Gadsden  strip  was  annexed  they  were  brought  into  the 
United  States  again.  A  few  years  ago  the  course  of  the  river 
changed  during  a  season  of  high  water,  so  that  one  morning  the 
people  woke  up  and  found  their  town  on  this  side  of  the  stream  !  " 

"  So  if  they  hadn't  been  annexed  by  treaty,  Nature  would  have 
annexed  them  !  "  remarked  Mabel. 

"  0  by  no  means  !  "  replied  her  brother.  "  The  original  river- 
bed would  stiU  have  been  the  boundary.  But  that  is  one  of  the 
inconveniences  of  making  a   river  a  political   division   line.     It  is 


80 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


£L 


not  ;i  natural  boundary ;  for  a  river,  instead  of  separating  the  people 
living  on  opposite  sides,  unites  their  interests  by  giving  them  a 
common  channel  of  transportation.  Then,  as  we  have  seen,  a  stream 
by  changing  its  course  is  apt  to  produce  a  confusion  in  the  distinction 
of  boundaries.  The  Mississippi,  for  instance,  has  shifted  its  bed  so 
much  that  many  portions  of  the  east 
b.uik  are  in  Arkansas.  Vicksburg  has 
been  changed  over  to  the  west  shore 
■  iiiinii       k  <    'A^if^s9f"»—  ^iiu  c  the  war.      But  by  looking  at  the 

/     '^}.  ^"""'"Si'^     ordinary  maps  you  would  never  think 

/-/  [%~"  "  '        the  river  had  made  such  a  confusion 

in  State  lines." 

A  little  later  they  were  traversing 
a  \\\\(\  plain  where  the  light  sandy 
soil  was  blown  into  bunchy  hUlocks, 
with  a  shrubby  groAvth  protruding 
from  the  top  of  each.  "  That  bush  is 
"It  usually  grows  like  any  other  tree,  but 
oots,  on  account  of  the  sand  covering  it  uj). 
So  the  people  around  here  dig  their  fuel  very  nuich  as  they  would 
potatoes.  There's  one  of  them  now  ! "'  and  lie  jxjinted  to  a  Mexican 
driving  a  donkey  along  near  tlic  track  :  tlu'  little  beast  toiling 
along  with  a  load  of  mesquite-roots  tied  onto  his  liack  almost  as  big 
as  himself.     "  He's  been  working  his  wood-mine,  you  see." 

"  That  sort  of  firewood  would  i)leasc  the  old  woman  wiio  said 
she  liked  the  crooked  sticks  because  they  curled  around  the  i)ot  so 
beautifully,"  said  Mal.cl. 

"  Ah,  here  we  are  in  Texas  !  "  cxclainu-d  Kliot.  ])ointing  to  a 
l)oundary  post. 


mesquite,"  said  Eliot, 
here  it  chiefly  runs  to 


THE    fUUISK    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  81 

"  It  seems  (jueer  that  we  should  strike  the  first  ideally  Southern 
State  in  our  journey  way  out  here  at  this  extreme  corner  of  it,  close 
to  Mexico  !  "  said  Harry. 

•'  How  ahout  Missouri  ?  "  asked  Mahel. 

"  0,  that  doesn't  count.  Although  it  was  a  slave  State,  we 
always  think  of  it  as  Western,  rather  than  Southern.  And  Kansas 
City  is  decidedly 


CHAPTER    VIII. 


ON    THE    FRONTIER,    TO    AND    FRO. 


^^  TV  TOW  for  your  first  look  at  Mexico  !  "  and  Eliot  pointed  towards 
a  dark  line  of  highlands  to  the  southward,  with  mountains 
ranging  off  bluely  beyond.  "  Do  you  see  that  monument  ?  That 
marks  the  boundary,  and  beyond  that  the  right  bank  of  the  Rio 
Grande  is  Mexican  all  the  way  to  the  Gvdf ,  —  excejjt  in  a  few  spots 
where  the  river  has  changed  its  course." 

The  valley  narrowed  and  the  mountains  on  either  side  drew 
nearer  together,  with  the  river  flowing  between,  the  banks  rising 
into  high  cliffs  on  either  side.  On  the  other  bank  they  saw  the  line 
of  a  railway  winding  along  on  a  shelf  on  the  face  of  the  bluff,  like 
their  own  track  on  this  shore.  Just  below  the  obelisk  that  was 
standing  high  above,  the  line  made  a  leap  across  the  river  on  a  sub- 
stantial iron  bridge  to  their  own  side,  and  kept  along  parallel  ^-ith 
then-  track  and  several  feet  below  their  level.  "  That  is  the  Southern 
Pacific,"  said  Eliot.  "  It  keeps  along  that  side  of  the  river  up  to 
within  a  few  yards  of  the  boundary,  and  then  crosses  to  this  bank  to 
avoid  entering  Mexican  territory." 

A  few  miles  more  and  they  dreAv  into  the  station  at  El  Paso. 
"Just  on  time  to  a  dot  1  "  cried  Harry,  looking  at  his  watch  and 
finding  it  ten  minutes  of  one.  as  flicy  caiiic  to  a  standstill. 

"We  are  in  luck,"  said  Kliot.  "  Two  or  three  lioiiis  behind  is 
iiotliiu"-   luu'ommon    on   tliese   long-distance   routes.      We   wait   here 


THE    CHUISK    OF    A    LANr»-YA("HT.  83 

some  little  time  before  we  cross  the  river,  I  believe,  aiul  our  train 
doesn't  pull  out  for  jNIexico  until  quarter  past  five.  What  do  you 
say  to  o-ettiuij;-  out  and  takiii<>-  that  street-car,  and  going-  '  By  Horse- 
car  to  Mexico,'  as  '  II.  H.'  calls  that  interesting  sketch  of  this 
jjlace." 

"  That  would  be  fun  —  but  O  no  !  It  would  never  do  for  us  not 
to  enter  Mexico  in  our  own  yacht  !  "  cried  his  sister. 

"  Yes,  we  must  stick  to  the  Ariadne  on  a  solemn  occasion  like 
this !  "  said  Harry.  "  To  cross  over  in  a  horse-car  that  isn't  even  a 
horse-car,  for  it  is  drawn  by  mules,  would  be  like  going  in  a  common 
punt." 

"  Besides,  it's  dinner  time,"  said  Mabel. 

"  I'll  tell  you  what,"  suggested  Eliot,  "  we  shall  have  plenty  of 
time,  so  when  we  have  got  over  there  we  can  come  back  to  '  the 
States '  by  street-car  and  return  again  to  Mexico.  In  that  way  we 
can  see  something  of  the  two  cities." 

While  they  were  at  dinner  they  were  taken  across  the  river  by  a 
switching-engine,  together  with  the  Pullman  and  baggage-car  of  the 
train,  so  that  a  transfer  could  be  conveniently  made  by  the  passen- 
gers. They  looked  down  into  the  swift  and  shallow  stream  rolling 
turbidly  beneath  them  as  they  crossed  the  bridge,  in  the  centre  of 
which  Eliot  called  :   "  Now  we  are  in  Mexico  !  " 

"  Hurrah  !  "  shouted  Harry. 

"  Just  think,  we  are  really  abroad,  in  a  foreign  countrv,  without 
crossing  the  ocean  !  "  said  Florence. 

"  And  you  a  yachtsman  at  that,  and  never  sailed  as  far  as  Nova 
Scotia,  or  even  New  Brunswick,  making  your  first  cruise  abroac', 
overland  in  a  land-craft!  "  said  Eliot  to  Harry,  teasingly. 


84  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

"  Well  children,  how  does  it  make  you  feel  to  l)e  in  a  foreign 
land?  "  asked  Mr.  Biinkley. 

"  Pretty  well  excited,  evidently  !  "  said  his  wife,  enjoying-  the 
exjDressions  of  their  glowhig-  faces  and  sparkling  eyes. 

"  At  any  rate,  you  must  spare  time  to  eat  some  of  this  in  lionor 
of  the  event,"  Mr.  Brinkley  said,  as  George  set  before  them  a  dish 
of  ice-cream  (niiamentally  arranged,  while  Sam's  dark  face  appeared 
in  the  doorway  to  observe  the  effect  of  his  device,  his  mouth  ex- 
panded into  a  delighted  grin  at  sight  of  their  evident  approval. 

"  An  arrangement  in  green,  white  and  red —  the  Mexican  colors  ! 
Good  for  you  Sam  ;  you're  an  artist  ! 

They  drew  up  at  the  station,  and  saw  that  the  crowd  on  the 
platform  was  truly  foreign  in  character.  There  was  a  multitude  of 
Mexicans  looking  impassively  on  at  the  train  ;  men  with  gay-hued 
blankets  about  their  shoulders  and  women  with  thin  black  shawls 
enfolding  their  heads  and  hiding- their  mouths  —  all  swarthy,  with 
dark  eyes,  while  now  and  then  there  was  a  flash  of  gleaming  teeth. 
Sprinkled  among  them  were  the  stalwart  figures  of  young-  Americans, 
mostly  brown-haired  and  Avith  clear  blue  eyes ;  their  faces  tanned  to 
a  hue  almost  rivalling  that  of  the  Mexicans.  They  were  mostly 
railroad  men,  and  they  moved  actively  to  and  fro  in  the  crowd, 
giving  and  taking  orders.  Here  and  there  was  a  slouching,  slinking 
figure,  with  unkempt  hair  and  i)eanl  tiie  color  of  dusty  hay  —  the 
typical  tramp  and  bunimei'  from  across  the  border.  There  were  also 
some  nattv  looking  men  in  unit'ornis,  with  a  decidedly  foreign 
air. 

"  Now  for  the  custom-house  ordeal  !  '"  said  Mr.  Brinkley. 

"Let  me   look   out  For   that,"  said    Kliot.  and    he  greeted   one  of 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACH'J 


85 


the  imifonned  officials  who  appeared  at  the  (h)or  with  a  cordial 
"  Buenos  (lias,  Senor !  "    (Good  day  to  you,  sir  !) 

"  Buenos  dias !  "'  he  replied ;  "  Dispensenme  Ustedes,  pero  yo 
soy  un  oficial  del  aduana,  y  — "  (Pardon  me,  your  excellencies, 
but  I  am  a  customs  officer  and  —  ) 

"  Usted  tiene  el  deber  de  examinar  nuestro  equipaje,  no  es  verdad? 
Pues  es  una  honra  enseiiarselo.  Nunca  molesta  una  visita  de  un 
caballero  como  Usted.  Al  contrario,  siempre  es  oeasion  muy  grato ! " 
(You  have  the  duty  of  examining  our  baggage,  have  you  not  ?  It 
is  an  honor  to  show  it.  The  visit  of  a  gentleman  like  yourself  is 
never  a  molestation.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  always  a  very  pleasant 
occasion.) 

The  official  beamed  in  reply :  -"  Usted  es  muy  amable."  (You  are 
very  amiable. ) 

"  Um  puro  habanero,  senor?"  and  Eliot  tendered  a  cigar,  which 
the  officer  accepted  with  a  "  Muchas  gracias  !  "  (many  thanks.) 

"  Pero  que  trastornada  esta  la  poblacion  esta  —  y  mejorada 
tambien ! "  Eliot  went  on.  "  Toda  esa  corre  por  cuenta  de  la  presencia 
de  Usted  y  los  demas  oficiales,  ereo  !  "  (But  how  transformed  is 
this  place  —  and  improved  also !  All  that  is  on  account  of  the 
presence  of  you  officials,  1  believe.  | 

"  No  tanto.  no  tanto.  senor  !  Viene  de  la  prosperidad  introducido 
por  el  ferrocarrill  lo  cual  debemos  a  los  paisanos  suyos,  los  Ameri- 
canos." (Not  so  much  as  that,  not  so  much  as  that,  sir  !  It  comes 
from  the  prosperity  introduced  by  the  railway,  for  which  we  are  in- 
debted to  your  countrymen,  the  Americans.) 

"  Y  con  la  prosperidad  v4eneu  los  officiales  caballerosos  —  es 
verdad !     Pero    le    estoy    deteniendo    a    Usted.     Vamos   a   ver   las 


bb  THE    CRUISE    OP    A    LAND-YACHT. 

cosas  !  "  (And  with  the  prosperity  the  gentlemanly  officials  —  it  is 
true  !     But  I  am  detaining  you.     Let  us  look  at  the  things  !) 

"  No  hay  caso,  senor !  Ustedes  son  excui-sionistas  y  — " 
(There  is  no  occasion,  sir  !     You  are  excursionists,  and  — ) 

"  Es  cierto  que  no  tenemos  mercancias.  Es  Usted  muy  cabellero" 
(It  is  true  we  have  no  merchandise.  You  are  very  much  of  a 
gentleman,  sir.) 

"  Es  nada,  seiior  !  Pero  que  carro  tan  hermoso  es  este  !  Es  im 
verdadero  palacio  !  "  (It  is  nothing,  sir !  But  what  a  beautiful  car 
is  this!  It  is  a  genuine  palace!)  said  the  official,  looking  around 
admiringly. 

"  Si  tenga  Usted  tiempo,  liagame  el  favor  de  acompaiiarme  para 
que  se  lo  enseiia  a  Usted.  Seria  »para  mi  una  placer  indecible." 
(If  you  have  time,  do  me  the  favor  of  accompanying  me  to  look  it 
over  ;  it  would  be  a  great  pleasure  for  me. ) 

When  Eliot  had  finished  his  tour  of  inspection  with  the  official 
he  sat  down  Avith  him  to  a  dish  of  the  ice-cream,  whose  Mexican 
tri-coloring  touclied  his  patriotii-  soul.  Then  taking  a  very  formal 
farewell  on  the  platform,  with  repeated  assurances  of  regard 
from  both  sides,  Eliot  returned  to  his  friends  and  was  greeted  by 
his  uncle  with  an  admiring  "  Bravo  my  boy  !  You  carried  us 
over  that  finely  !  "' 

"  0,  there  is  nothing  like  courtesy  with  these  people  !  Rude- 
ness is  almost  a  cardinal  sin  in  Mexico.  And  it  is  charming 
to  see  the  gentleness  of  conduct,  the  respect  for  another's  i)ei- 
sonalitv,  which  marks  the  intercourse  of  all  classes  in  tiiis 
country.  Here  at  the  custom-house,  although  they  pile  on  the 
duties  unmercifully  in  the  case  of  freight,  they  are  very  considerate 


THK    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


87 


ill    till'   tii'atiueiit   of  pas.son<>ers,   and,   as  you  have  just  seen,  they 
appreciate  a  eourteoiis  heaiintj;'  on  tlie  part  oF  Anierii-ans. 

"  But  speaking  of  the  custoin-house,  reminds  nie  of  a  story  that 

Mackenzie,  recently  general  superintendent  of  the  Mexican  Central, 

told  nie  of  the  time  when  his  headquarters  were  here.     This  place 

is  in  the  Zona  libra,  the  Free  Zone,  now,  but  then  the  belt  had  not 

been  extended  up  the  river  to  this  point.     The  free  zone  is  a  strip 

of  territory  along  the  border  within  which,  under  a  law  of  Mexico, 

there  is  free  trade  with  foreign  countries.      European  goods  are  now 

sold    in    this     ])Iace.    lirought 

.  ,-::s^ii.;;s^-  tlirougli  our  country  in   l)()ii(l,  at 

'    ,_^   .."-—-■'  almost      European      j)rices,     and 

■cyi:^-  ^  there    is    naturally    a    good   deal 

j^-;  ,  '        )-,     '"'f'T'i'  of    smuggling    back    to    the 

American     side.       But     as     to 

Mack's    story.       An    Irish     loc-o- 

motivc   engineer,   in   charge   of  a 

switching-engine     like     the     one 

that  ])i()ught  us  across  the  river, 

was    compelled   l)y   his    duties  to 

live    on    this    side    of    the    river. 

He    wanted     a     cook-stove,     and 

came  to    Mackenzie    asking    jn-i- 

__  mission    to    import     it    with    tiie 

railway  material,  which  comes  in 

duty  free.      But  the  company  has  to  be  very  strict  in  such  matters, 

being  under  Mexican  laws,  and  so  Mackenzie  felt  obliged  to  refuse. 

So  the  man  undertook  the  responsibility  of  smuggling  it  over  him- 


0<5  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

self.  The  duty  on  sucli  ;i  tiling-  is  so  much  a  kih)ora]n,  wliich  would 
make  its  cost  enormous  on  this  side,  although  stoves  were  cheap 
enough  in  Eh  Paso.  But  they  are  almost  unknown  in  Mexico,  and 
hardly  one  Mexican  in  a  hundred  thousand  would  know  the  diflfer- 
ence  between  a  cook-stove  and  a  dynamo.  The  engineer  bought 
his  stove  and  had  it  brought  down  to  the  yard  on  the  American 
side,  where  he  set  it  up  in  front  of  his  engine,  with  a  section  of 
smoke-pipe  attached.  He  then  kindled  a  fire  in  it  and  started 
for  Mexico.  At  the  station  here  the  custom-house  man  came 
around  as  usual,  peered  into  the  cab  on  the  lookout  for  conti-aband 
packages,  and  meanwhile  the  engineer  was  going  the  usual  rounds 
of  his  locomotive,  oiling  up.  In  front  the  cook-stove  was  pouring  a 
lively  stream  of  black  smoke  from  its  pipe.  The  engineer  solemnly 
looked  it  over,  took  off  a  cover  and  gave  the  fire  a  jtoke,  took  off 
another  and  repeated  the  operation,  and  then,  in  a  most  professional 
manner,  carefully  oiled  the  hinges  of  the  oven  door  !  His  ruse  was 
successful,  and  the  custom-house  man  had  no  suspicion  that  the 
stove  was  not  some  kind  of  an  attachment  to  the  engine.  Machinery 
comes  into  Mexico  duty  free,  and  there  was  a  certain  mining 
company  up  in  the  Sierra  Madre  that  wanted  a  cooking-range  for  its 
camp  headquarters.  The  duties  on  it  would  have  amounted  to  a 
thousand  dollars,  or  more,  and  so  it  was  impoitcd  under  the  head  of 
'  mining-machinery,'  and  at  tlic  custom-house  they  were  none  the 
wiser." 

"  Well,  as  we  have  plenty  of  time,  let  us  take  a  tri|(  l)ack  to  the 
United  States,"  said  Mr.  Briiiklt'y. 

"  It  does  indeed  seem  foreign  here,"  Mabel  remarked,  as  they 
were  on  their  way  in  the  street-car.     One  wouldn't  think  there  would 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACIIT.  89 

be  sucli  a  (lift'eiencc  just  across  the  river.  There  is  that  massive- 
looking  railway  station,  l)ni]t  al)()ut  an  open  court ;  all  these  adobe 
buildings,  those  signs  in  Spanish  over  the  doors,  and  nearly  all  the 
people  we  meet !  " 

'■  Yes.  but  it  is  a  sort  of  frontier  foreigniu'ss,"  said  Kliot.  witli  a 
shade  of  contempt  in  his  voice.  "  Just  wait  till  we  get  well  down 
into  Mexico !  " 

"  It  seems  really  Southern,  at  any  rate,"  said  Florence.  •'  It  is 
so  warm  in  this  air  that  my  clothing  feels  altogether  too  heavy." 

"  Nothing  particularly  tropical  about  the  vegetation,  however !  " 
replied  Eliot.  The  trees  were  all  bare,  and  the  garden  plants  about 
the  houses  had  a  dry  and  frost-stricken  loolc.  But  there  were  a  few 
hardy  flowers  blooming,  and  there  were  some  Southern-looking 
shrubs  with  green  leaves.  "  Now  and  then,  in  whiter,  there  are  sev- 
eral inches  of  snow  here,  but  it  doesn  't  stay  on  the  ground  long," 
Eliot  went  on.  "  We  are  in  about  the  latitude  of  Montgomery  and 
Savannah,  but  we  are  still  two  thousand  seven  hundred  and  seventeen 
feet  above  the  sea." 

"  What  a  long  way  from  home  we  are  !  And  yet  we  have  spent 
but  five  nights  on  the  car."    Mrs.  Brinkley  remarked. 

"Is  that  all?"  cried  Harry.  '•  Why  I  feel  as  if  I  had  been  liv- 
ing on  the  Ariadne  a  month  or  two  already  !  " 

"Just  how  far  have  we  come?"  asked  Florence. 

"Let's  see,"  responded  Eliot,  "we  are  just  one  thousand  six 
hundred  and  thirty  miles  from  Chicago,  and  so  we  have  coine  nearly 
three  thousand  miles  altogether,  from  Boston  to  the  boundary." 

"  I  'm  sure  I  don  't  see  anything  very  '  grandy  "  about  the  river," 
exclaimed   Harry,  looking  down  from  the  bridge  as  they  crossed, 


90  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

upon  the  turbid  waters  iiinning  swiftly  over  wide,  flat  expanses  of 
sand.  "  Why,  see  that  cart  down  there  in  the  middle  of  the  stream 
crossing-  over  with  the  water  only  just  over  the  hubs  !  " 

Eliot  answered  :  "'  And  yet  I  saw  it  over  twenty  feet  deep  at  this 
point  when  I  tame  north  in  July.  It  kept  that  way  nearly  three 
months,  there  had  been  so  much  snow  in  the  Rockies  the  ^vinter  be- 
fore. It  washed  away  the  railroad  bridge  here,  and  we  had  to  cross 
in  a  skitf.  It  washed  away  miles  and  miles  of  the  Santa  Fe  tracks 
in  New  Mexico  and  Texas.  It  was  a  river  not  to  be  sneezed  at, 
then  !  " 

"  And  in  length  it  is  certainly  worthy  of  its  name,"  said  Mr. 
Brinkley.  "  Just  think,  its  source  is  way  up  in  the  Rockies  of 
Southern  Colorado,  and  it  is  a  clear  mountain  stream  the  first  hun- 
dred miles,  or  so." 

"  The  Mexicans  call  it  the  Rio  Bravo  from  here  down  to  the 
Gulf.  That  would  make  it  mean  swift  river,  but  I  have  heard  it 
said  that  the  name  was  given  in  honor  of  General  Bravo,  one  of  the 
heroes  of  theii-  struggle  for  independence.  But,"  continued  Eliot, 
"  Rio  Grande  does  not  mean  grand  river,  but  great  river.  In  Sjian- 
ish  tlie  meanhig  of  the  adjective  is  modified,  according  as  it  comes 
before,  or  after  the  noun.  When  tlie  adjective  comes  first,  its 
meaning  is  figurative,  and  wlicn  it  foUows  its  noun,  it  is  literal.  If 
it  were  the  Grand  River,  its  Spanish  name  wonld  be  A7  (,'r(ni  A'/n."' 

On  the  bridge  an  American  customs-officer  had  boarded  tlic  lai'. 
and  poked  al)out  among  the  parcels  of  the  passengers,  looking  with 
much  suspicion  on  some,  asking  minute  questions,  and  notifying 
others  that  they  nuist  go  to  the  custom-bovise  with  him  to  have  tlie 
packages  that  they  carried  passed  up.m.      "  Tliat    business  has  to  be 


THE     CHUISK    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  J)l 

none  tliroiioli  with,  day  in  and  day  out,  on  every  street-car  tliat 
l)a.sses  from  the  Mexican  side  across  to  EI  Paso,"  said  Eliot.  "They 
are  fearfully  strict  here,  for  there  Ls  a  dealer  in  Mexican  curios  in 
El  Paso  who  complains  if  anybody  brings  in  duty  free  so  much  as  a 
ten-cent  ornament  from  the  other  side.  He  wants  everybody  com- 
pelled by  law  to  patronize  his  shop." 

"  This  jjlace  seems  as  American  as  the  other  does  Mexican,"  Mrs. 
Brinkley  remarked,  as  the  street-car  rolled  at  a  leisurely  pace 
through  the  modern,  wide-awake  looking  city,  Avith  large  and  suli- 
stantial  business  structures,  and  many  handsome  dwellings  with 
pleasant  grounds.  "  What  a  contrast  from  that  time  you  brought 
me  downi  here  with  you  in  July,  '81,  Uncle  Lemuel,  just  after  the 
Santa  Fe  had  built  its  track  into  the  place,  and  the  Mexican  Central 
was  just  beginning  work  from  this  end  southward,"  said  Eliot. 
"  The  place  was  mean,  slouchy  and  tough.  Only  a  few  weeks  be- 
fore, the  •  rustlers'  had  full  sway  and  sometinu>s  there  were  several 
murders  in  one  day.  The  only  hotel  was  the  nastiest  den  I  ever 
saw,  and  we  nearly  starved  the  one  day  we  spent  here.  Now  look 
at  those  fine  large  hotels,  supplied  with  every  convenience,  and  see 
how  the  town  has  spread  far  out  into  the  desert." 

"  Even  though  I  knew  that  five  railroads  meeting  here  could  not 
help  making  it  an  important  point,  I  felt  in  all  that  heat  and  dirt 
and  dust  that  I  wouldn  't  give  ten  dollars  for  the  whole  i)lace,"  Mr. 
Brinkley  added.  "  But  they  were  preparing  for  the  future  then, 
and  although  it  made  me  laugh  to  see  the  plans  posted  around 
showing  all  that  gravelly  cactus  desert  laid  out  into  fine  streets  and 
house-lots,  they  have  been  pretty  well  realized  now.  It  gives  one 
an  idea  of  the  way  our  country  is  developing,  and  of  the  tremendous 


92  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

energy  and  power  of  the  American  people,  to  travel  anywhere  now- 
a-days,  north,  sonth,  east  or  west,  and  see  the  changes  of  even  two 
or  three  years." 

"  These  little  coops  of  wooden  houses  where  the  great  mass  of 
people  live  seem  to  be  of  the  same  pattern  everywhere  in  the  West, 
don  't  they  ?  "  Mabel  remarked.  "  In  their  size  they  seem  to  be  so 
at  variance  with  the  Western  standards  of  bigness  concerning  about 
everything  else.  In  the  East  they  would  be  considered  hardly  fit  for 
anything  more  than  hen-houses !  I  don  't  see  how  they  stand  it  in 
the  summers  of  a  climate  like  this." 

"  Such  houses  are  hot  as  blazes,  almost !  "  Eliot  answered.  "  The 
people  stew,  fry,  roast,  and  fricasee  themselves  by  living  in  them. 
Nothing  coidd  be  more  unfit  for  this  climate.  The  thick  earthen 
walls  of  an  adobe  house  give  as  much  coolness  as  possible,  but  there 
is  such  a  prejudice  against  anything  that  is  Mexican  that  wood  is 
considered  the  respectable  thing  for  building,  and  so  the  average 
American  here  sticks  to  it !  " 

On  their  return  to  the  Mexican  side,  Mr.  Brinkley  told  them 
how  the  two  towns  used  to  have  the  same  name,  '•  El  Past) 
del  Norte,"  meaning  the  northerly  pass,  or  crossing  of  the  Rio 
Grande.  The  Mexican  town  was  the  principal  })lace,  and  on  the 
Texan  side  there  was  a  wretched  little  hamlet  only.  But  as  the 
latter  grew,  it  took  on  the  name  of  EI  Paso,  Avhile  the  original 
place  became  known  as  Paso  del  Norte.  But  lately,  to  avoid  con- 
fusion, the  Mexicans  had  renamed  their  place,  and  it  was  now  called 
Ciudad  Juarez,  or  Juarez  City.  It  was  an  appropriatt'  name,  tor  it 
was  here  that  the  great  statesman,  the  famous  jjresident  of  Mexico 
from  the  time  of  the  civil  war  of  Reform  down  through  the  rule  of 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


93 


Maximilian  as  emperor,  was  driven  when  his  fortunes  were  at  their 
lowest.  Two  great  achievements  therefore  gave  him  high  rank  as 
a  patriot,  the  reconstruction  of  the  Mexican  form  of  government  on 
liberal  principles,  and  the  ridding  of  his  country  of  foreign  in- 
vaders. Juarez  maintained  the  seat  of  republican  government  here 
at  this  place  for  some  time,  and  never  was  driven  to  take  refuge  on 
American  soil,  although  prepared  to  in  case  of  necessity.  All 
through  Maxunilian's  reign  he  never  ceased  to  act  as  president  of 
the  republic  in  some  jiortion  of  the  country. 

"  It  should  never  be  forgotten,"  said  Eliot,  "  that  Juarez,  whom 
William  II.  Seward  declared  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  modern 
statesmen,  was  a  full-blooded  Indian,  as  you  may  see  by  any  of  the 
portraits  so  common  in  Mexico.  It  is  well  to  remember  that,  as  well 
as  the  fact  that  Mexico  is  really  an  Indian  republic,  with  something 
like  nine-tenths  of  Indian  blood  in  its  population,  when  we  hear  any 
one  discussing  the  Indian  question  and  saying  the  Indians  are  in- 
capable of  civilization." 

"  Why,  our  own  ancestors  fifteen  hundred  years  ago  were  the 
savages  of  Northern  Europe,  as  wild  as  any  North  American  Indians 
today,"  Mr.  Brmkley  asserted.  "  And  the  Aztecs  and  ancient 
Peruvians  were  Indians,  developmg  what  might  have  been  a  high 
order  of  civilization  of  their  own  when  the  Spanish  concpierors  came 
and  extinguished  it.  The  Aztec  calendar  was  more  accurate  than 
that  of  their  Spanish  conquerors,  and  must  have  been  founded  on  a 
more  extensive  astronomical  knoAvledge." 

"  B-r-r-r  !  It  is  getting  chiUy  !  "  exclauued  Florence,  as  they 
came  within  sight  of  the  train  made  up  at  their  station,  with  the 
white  Ariadne  in  the  rear,  contrasting  with  the  dark  ridbnan  just 
ahead.     "  I  didn't  look  for  this  from  INIcxico  !  " 


94  THE    CKUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

The  sky  had  been  gradually  becoiuing-  overcast.  It  was  now 
quite  gray,  and  a  raw  wind  had  begun  to  blow  from  the  nortli.  ''  A 
hint,  not  exactly  gentle,  for  us  to  withdraw  from  the  frontier !  "  Mr. 
Brinkley  remarked,  with  a  laugh. 

Harry  went  with  Eliot  to  look  at  tlie  train,  witli  its  Spanish 
words  on  the  cars  and  the  locomotive  ;  "  Ferrocarril  Central  Mexi- 
cano  "  (Mexican  Central  Railway),  and  "  Carro  Dormitorio  Pullman" 
on  the  Pullman  Sleeping  car,  while  the  three  passenger-coaches  were 
rano-ed  from  front  to  rear  in  the  order  of  third,  second,  and  first- 
class,  respectively,  after  the  manner  of  European  railways,  though 
American  in  style  of  construction. 

The  bell  rang,  the  conductor  shouted  the  equivalent  for  "  All 
aboard !"  "  Ya  vamonos,"  (Now  we  go !)  and  the  train  began  to 
move  southward  in  the  gathering  dusk.  The  cosy,  brilHantly  lighted 
interior  of  the  Ariadne  never  seemed  more  home-like. 

"  We  are  running  on  City  of  Mexico  tune  now,"  said  Eliot. 
"  This  makes  the  third  time  to  change  our  watches  since  we  started. 
An  hour  slower  at  Pittsburg,  another  hour  slower  at  Dodge  City  in 
Kansas  for  Mountain  tune,  and  now  twenty-four  miiuites  forward 
ao'uin  —  a  net  difference  of  one  hour  and  twenty-three  minutes 
slower  than  our  Eastern  time." 

"  Tliat's  because  Ave  have  to  go  eastward  again,  I  suppose  !  "  said 
Harry. 

"  Yes,"  Eliot  re])lied,  "  we  have  come  westward  t(>  the  backl)one 
of  the  continent  and  are  now  following  it  southeastward  down  to  the 
capital.  You  know  the  standard  time  in  our  country  is  that  of  the 
respective  meridians,  or  very  near  the  meridians,  of  Pliilad(>l|)liia.  St. 
Louis,  Denver,  and  that  of  the  line  between  California  and    Nevada, 


CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


95 


which  ;ii('  each  hfteeii  degTees  apart,  making-  a  diiference  of  an  honr 
in  tht"  time  of  caili.  Our  List  standard  was  that  of  Mountain  Time, 
reckoned  l)y  the  one  hiin(hcd  and  liith  meridian,  Avhich  is  that  of 
Denver.  The  meridian  of  the  Mexican  capital,  whose  thne  standard 
is  for  all  the  railways  of  this  country,  is  the  ninety-nintli.  which  makes 
just  twenty-four  minutes  difference,  there  being  a  chang'c  of  four 
minutes  to  a  degree." 

"  That  is  a  good  thing  to  remember,  that  four  minutes  to  a 
degree  business,"  said  Harry. 

"  IIow  far  is  it  to  the  ('ity  of  Mexico?"  Florence  asked. 

"  Nineteen  hundred  and  seventy-three  kilometers,  or  twelve 
himdred  and  twenty-three  and  one-half  miles." 


CHAPTER   IX. 


N     A     FOREIGX     LAND. 


TTARRY  was  up  by  daylight  the  next  luorning,  looking-  out  over 
the  country.  Tlie  air  Avas  sharp  when  he  stepped  out  onto  the 
"  quarter-deck,"  but  he  wrapped  himself  in  his  thick  coat  and  watched 
the  track  slip  away  behind  the  train,  mostly  in  long  Unes  of  arrow- 
like straightness  for  miles  and  miles,  sometmies  rising  gradually  up 
an  even  incluie,  and  again  descending  into  the  distance,  while  the 
slower  motion  and  rapid  puffing  of  the  locomotive  indicated  that 
they  were  running  up  a  grade.  A  broad  plain  on  either  side  ex- 
tended away  to  the  feet  of  long  chains  of  serrated  mountains  that 
drew  nearer  and  nearer  together  as  the  train  advanced,  until  they 
almost  met,  leaving  a  narrow  valley  for  the  passage  of  the  railway, 
and  then  they  gradually  fell  away  again.  The  plain  was  well 
covered  with  crisp,  brown  grass,  and  there  were  few  trees  to  be  seen, 
except  a  leafless  clump  about  some  white-walled,  fortress-like  enclosure 
visible  in  the  distance  at  rare  intervals.  The  mountains  were 
bare  in  their  sharp  outlines.  There  was  a  certain  general  rcseiublance 
to  the  New  Mexican  landscape  of  the  day  before,  but  Harry's  keen 
and  observing  young  eyes  noted  many  marked  differences  that  gave 
it  a  distinct  character.  "  Those  yuccas  are  much  larger  than  those 
we  saw  yesterday  ;  I  suppose  that  comes  from  our  being  so  much 
farther  south,  doesn't  it?"  he  said  to  Eliot,  who  had  joined  him. 
He  pointed  to  the  great  plants  dotted  here  and  tluTc  all  over  the 
96 


THE    (BRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  i)7 

plains,    witli   their  sharp   leaves   i^rowiiii;-  in    Ijiistlini--  clusters  at   the 
end  of  their  thick  stalks,  several  feet  from  the  uroiiiid. 

"  Yos,"  replied  Eliot,  "  hut  tomorrow  you  will  see  them  jiTowiug 
ill  refrular  forests,  and  large  trees  in  size  ;  thirty  and  forty  feet  high. 
I  wish  you  might  see  them  in  blossom  —  but  perhaps  you  will  be- 
fore we  get  back.  Do  you  notice  those  great  dry  spikes  on  some  of 
the  plants,  like  little  sticks  tied  on  ?  They  are  the  remains  of  last 
year's  flowers  and  seeds.  They  call  the  yucca  the  Pahnilla  (pro- 
nounced pal-mU-yu)  here.  The  roots  make  a  perfect  natural  soap. 
The  women  pound  them  and  bruise  them  with  stones,  and  then  stu- 
them  around  in  water,  making  a  thick  lather,  .which  washes  cloth 
wonderfully  clean.  Amole  {ah-rno-hiy)  they  call  the  roots.  It  is 
the  finest  thing  for  washing  the  hair,  leaving  it  soft  and  silkv  ;  not 
in  the  least  harsh  and  dry,  as  does  soap." 

"  Here  we  are  stopping  at  this  water-tank  ;  let 's  jump  off  and 
get  a  root  to  use  in  the  bath  tomorrow,"  suggested  Harry,  alert 
to  try  everything  new. 

They  rushed  for  the  nearest  yucca  ami  tugged  frantically,  with 
little  avail  until  a  handsome,  brown-faced  youth,  who  had  been 
looking  smilingly  on  from  the  station  platform,  came  to  their  assist- 
ance, and  easily  extricated  it  from  the  earth.  "  Mil  gracias,  ami"-o ! 
listed  tiene  la  liabilidad  de  un  dentista !  "  (A  thousand  thanks, 
friend !  You  have  the  skill  of  a  dentist !  )  said  Eliot,  takino-  out  a 
quarter  and  handing  it  to  him.  But  the  young  fellow  courteously 
refused  the  money  :  "  De  nada,  seiior ;  no  acejito  diiiero  por  eso  ! 
Basfci  el  placer  de  recibir  las  ajireciaciones  amistosas  de  Ustedes  !  " 
(It  is  nothing,  sii- ;  I  do  not  take  money  for  that !  Sufficient  is  the 
pleasure  of  receiving  your  friendly  appreciation.) 


98  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

At  tliis  chiuniint;-  reply  Eliot  gave  a  frank  laugh  and  said,  in 
English,  "  Well,  my  boy,  you  are  a  regular  white  man !  "  while 
Harry  extendmg  his  hand  and  saying  nothing,  hut  speaking  thanks 
with  his  eyes,  rushed  into  the  ear  and  in  a  moment  reappeared  on 
the  "  quarter-deck "  as  the  train  began  to  move  away.  He  had 
snatched  from  the  table  a  couple  of  lieautiful  great  red  New  Eng- 
land apples,  and  tossed  them  toward  the  young  Mexican  one  after 
the  other,  the  latter  catching  them  witli  sparkling  eyes  and  a  pleased 
laugh. 

"Mercy,  what  have  you  there  ?  "  exclaimed  Mabel,  who  mean- 
while had  appeared  with  Florence,  as  Eliot  entered  wth  the  yucca. 

"  A  sample  of  native  soap,  with  scrubbing-brush  attached !  "  re- 
plied her  brother. 

"  Why,  those  leaves  are  like  daggers,  their  points  are  so  sharp  !  " 
cried  Florence,  shrinking  from  the  touch  of  one  of  them. 

"They  call  it  the  Spanish  bayonet  on  our  side  of  the  line," 
said  Eliot.  "  When  my  friend  Fletcher  of  Santa  Fe  was  s])ecial 
agent  for  the  Interior  Dej^artment  he  once  made  a  tn|)  across 
country  in  Southern  New  Mexico.  (Jue  of  tlie  two  mules  hitclieil 
to  his  buck-board  was  so  inchn.'.l  tn  loaC  that  the  otli.T  ..iw  .lid 
nearly  all  the  pulling.  So  the  next  day  he  liit  on  the  expedient  of 
lashing  one  of  these  yucca  heads  to  the  whifHe-tree  just  liack  of 
the  lazy  beast.  As  soon  as  she  began  to  loaf  siie  felt  a  gentle 
n-minder  from  behind  that  made  lier  spring  forward  with  remark- 
able energy.  All  the  rest  ol'  that  day  she  was  the  smartest  :„ule  in 
the  Territory,  and    her  mate  had  an  easy  time  of  it." 

'•T  see  that  it  says  kiloniet.Ts.  instead  of  miles.  ..n  all  thes,.  dis- 
tance jMists  along  the  track,"    said  Harry. 


THK    CKUISE    OF    A    I.AND-YACHT.  99 

■■Yes:  tlic  metiic  system  is  tlu-  staiidanl  in  ^r^xico,  as  in  iirai'lv 
all  civilized  countiies  except  our  own  and  tile  other  Eii<>-lisli-speak- 
in<;-  nations  oF  the  world.  It  ought  to  he  evervwliere,  it  is  so  simple 
and  convenient.  Really  I  can  't  for  the  liFe  of  me  rememher  the 
various  tahles  of  weij^hts  and  measures  —  Apothecaries'  wei<>ht, 
Troy  weii^ht,  etc.,  —  that  T  learned  hy  rote  at  scho(d,  except  the  few 
simple  thinos  I  have  constantly  had  to  aiiply  in  practice.  But  the 
metric  system,  with  its  uniform  decimals,  once  learned  cannot  easily 
be  forgotten." 

"  I  haven  't  the  slightest  idea  of  a  kilometer,"  said  ^Faliel. 

'•  But  it  is  the  easiest  thing  to  get  an  idea  of,"  her  hrother  re- 
plied. "  American  civil  engineers  coming  here  take  to  the  standard 
at  once  ;  it  Avoukl  save  ns  lots  of  time  and  bother  if  we  could  onlv 
use  it  at  home  entirely.  A  kilometer  is,  in  round  nuud)ers,  pist 
about  five-eighths  of  a  mile.  It  is  about  the  distance  one  would 
walk  in  fifteen  minutes,  going  at  the  ordinary  gait  of  most  people. 
A  kilometer  a  minute  is  also  about  the  average  s[)eed  of  an  express 
train." 

••  Three  hundred  and  iifty-six  kilometeis,"  Harry  read  from  a 
post  as  they  sped  by. 

P^liot  ium[)ed  up.  "Well!"  he  exclaimed.  "  we  had  lietter  be 
on  the  lookout!  Yes.  there  it  is  —  that's  Chihuahua  !"  and  he 
pointed  across  the  plain,  where  at  the  feet  of  mountains  rising 
abruptly,  with  outlines  resendiling  cunuilus  clouds,  there  s|)read  a 
considerable  mass  of  l)uildings,  witii  domes  and  towers  here  and 
there,  and,  above  the  rest,  two  stately  twin  church-towers,  gilded  by 
the  rays  of  the  early  sun.  They  all  looked  with  eager  interest  at 
their  first  larjre  Mexican  citv. 


100  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAXD-YACKT. 

"  It  is  oGl.8  kilometers,  or  just  two  hundred  and  twenty-four 
miles,  from  Ciudad  Juarez ;  a  few  miles  more  than  Ijetween  New 
York  and  Boston,"  said  Eliot,  looking  at  the  distance  on  a  railway 
"  folder  "  that  he  had  supjjlied  himself  with. 

"  Why,  it  looks  really  European  —  it  doesn't  seem  as  if  it  could 
be  on  this  continent !  "  Mabel  said. 

"  Just  examine  those  towers  through  this  field-glass,"  said  Eliot. 
"  It  wiU  bring  them  very  near.  Suppose  you  take  the  first  peep, 
Florence  !  " 

"  0  how  beautiful  !     What  rich  stone-carving  !  " 

"  I  wish  you  might  see  it  close  at  hand.  It  is  a  beautiful  struct- 
ure. Strangers  call  it  the  cathedral,  usually,  but  it  really  is  the 
parochial  church,  for  there  is  no  bishop  in  Chihuahua.  It  is  large 
enough  for  a  cathedral,  though." 

"  What  a  pity  we  are  not  going  to  stop  over  here  !  " 

"  It  almost  seems  so,  but  there  are  so  many  things  to  see,  and 
your  father  thought  that  we  had  better  make  right  for  the  heart  of 
Mexico,  where  we  would  find  the  richest  and  most  interesting  part 
of  the  country  —  more  than  we  could  exhaust  in  one  season's  trip  — 
besides  enjoying  at  once  a  climate  of  either  perfect  spring  or  perfect 
simimer,  just  as  we  wished.  But  it  would  be  worth  while  to  sec  this 
place  just  as  I  did  the  first  tinic.  The  railway  had  been  opened 
here  but  a  few  weeks.  It  was  the  last  of  November,  and  1  came 
down  with  a  party  of  friends  from  Santa  Fe,  where  snow  tlu-n 
covered  the  ground.  At  Paso  del  Norte  it  was  like  early  October  at 
home,  but  here  it  was  like  early  September,  with  a  soft,  summerish 
air,  the  trees  full  green.  Although  nearly  a  thousand  feet  higher 
than  the  elevation  at  the  boinidary,  it  is  so  nuu-h  farther  south  that 


CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACH'l 


101 


it  makes  a  inaikcd  (litlViciicc  in  the  cliinatf.  But  now,  you  see,  it 
looks  aliout  as  wiuterisli  as  it  does  there,  and  they  have  eonsiderahle 
snow  liere  at  times.  We  arrived  here  by  moonlight,  and  it  was  a 
full  moon,  too.  It  seemed  like  an  enchanted  spectacle  as  we 
wandered  throni^h  the  streets  tliat  evening,  with  the  white  light 
pouring  in  a  flood  over  the  strange  architecture.  All  these  State 
capitals  in  Mexico  are  interesting  places,  and  you  can  see  that  they 
are  little  ce^ntres  m  themselves. 

"  Chihuahua  has  a  place  of  some  importance  in  Mexican  history. 
It  was  founded  through  the  discovery  of  rich  silver  mines  around 
here ;  those  of  Santa  Eulalia,  which  are  now  exhausted.  But  with 
the  railway  the  city  has  become  a  trade-centre  for  mining-districts  all 
through  northern  Mexico.  It  was  here  that  Hidalgo,  the  patriot 
priest  who  started  the  Mexican  struggle  for  independence,  was 
finally  captured  and  shot  by  the  Spaniards,  with  several  other  lead- 
ers in  the  revolution.  Under  the  Maximilian  empire,  the  French 
troops  were  m  possession  for  a  time,  and  the  jjlace  was  besieged  by 
the  Republican  forces  and  bond>arded  ;  some  of  the  marks  may  still 
be  seen  on  those  towers,  and  one  of  the  bells  lias  a  hole  shot  through 
it." 

All  the  rest  of  the  day  they  sped  southward  through  a  thinly 
populated  country,  treeless,  sunny  and  dry.  "  O'dy  for  a  few  weeks 
in  the  summer,  when  the  rains  come,  the  grass  is  green  all  over  these 
desolate  plains,  and  flowers  spring  up  on  every  hand.  But  rains 
are  uncertain  here  in  northern  Mexico,  and  some  years  there  are 
ahnost  none  at  all,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley. 

"  It  does  seem  to  be  a  thorough  desert,  for  the  most  part,  but  if 
we  look  at  it  rightly,  we  will  find  it  full  of  interest  and  even  beauty/' 


102  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

said  his  wife.  "  I  love  to  watch  these  tawny  plains,  Hooiled  with 
pnre,  clear  sunshine,  shelving  away,  inclining  gradually  upward  here 
and  downward  there,  S2)read  with  a  soft  blue  veil  of  haze  in  the  far 
distance.  And  then  the  mountains  ever  in  sight,  changing  in  form 
almost  imperceptibly  as  we  pass,  rugged  and  sharp  in  this  transpar- 
ent air,  with  shadows  shifting  as  the  day  advances,  and  clothed  in 
wonderful  violet  and  purple  lights  that  make  one  think  the  atmos- 
phere here  has  prismatic  properties.  A  book  like  this  '  Bits  of  Travel 
at  Home  '  by  'H.H.,' teaches  us  to  find  beauty  even  in  the  common- 
place and  in  what  most  people  find  wholly  dreary.  Here  is 
that  delicate  passage  of  hers  about  the  sage-brush  of  the  desert,  seen 
from  the  car-window.  And  the  exquisiteness  of  this  description  of 
the  sand  with  its  ripples,  blown  about  the  street  in  San  Francisco !  " 

At  about  ten  o'clock  they  entered  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Conchas 
and  followed  its  richly  cultivated  bottom-lands  until  they  left 
Jimenez,  where  their  train  stopped  for  dinner,  shortly  after  midday. 
Outside  it  was  now  so  hot  in  the  blazing  sunlight  as  to  be  almost 
oven-like.  Harry  reported  the  Pidlman  passengers  as  faii-ly  swelter- 
ing Avith  the  heat.  "  Touch  first  this  car,  and  then  the  Ariadne," 
said  his  nu'/le,  going  outside  with  hmi  at  a  station.  Harry  found 
that  the  dark  side  of  the  Pullman,  exposed  to  the  sun,  was  almost 
burning  hot,  while  the  white  surface  of  their  own  was  cool. 

"  What  a  ditt'erence  !  "  Harry  exclaimed. 

"  Yes,  this  white  paint  and  the  double  roof  maUc  all  the  dilVcr- 
ence  between  comfort  and  misery.  We  have  had  the  windows 
closed  to  keep  out  both  dust  and  heat,  and  you  sec  how  agreeable 
the  temperature  has  been.  The  ventilathig  fans  have  given  us  good 
air,  and  the  only  trouble  has  been  from  the  dust  that  would  get  in, 


THK    ClUIISK    OF    A    I,AN1)-VACHT.  103 

ill   spite  of  our  anaii<;ciiiciit   of    tine  wire  screens  to  keep  it  out." 
'•  What     clouds    of     dust     the    train    raises    at    some    of    these 
stretches  !  " 

"  Yes,  tliat  is  tlie  greatest  discomfort  attending  travel  in  a 
country  like  this,  with  long  months  of  rainless  weather.  Even  a 
climate  of  perpetual  sunshine  has  its  drawbacks.  As  for  dust,  there 
is  a  fine  field  for  some  invention  that  will  keep  it  entirely  out  of  cars 
Avhile  ventilating  them  thoroughly.  If  all  railways  could  be 
thoroughly  ballasted  with  rock,  there  would  be  little  bother  from 
dust." 

It  was  gro-wing  dark  when  Eliot  told  them  that  they  had  passed 
out  of  the  great  State  of  Chihuahua  —  in  territory  the  largest  of  the 
twenty-six  forming  the  federal  republic  of  IMexico  —  into  the  State 
of  Durango.  During  the  night  they  would  cut  at-ross  tlie  north- 
eastern corner  of  Durango  and  the  southeastern  corner  of  Coahuila, 
and  in  the  morning  they  would  find  themselves  more  than  half-way 
across  Zacatecas.  "  We  are  entering  the  rich  Laguna  region  now," 
said  he.  "  Fifteen  years  ago,  or  so,  this  was  an  almost  uninhabited 
wilderness,  an  arifl  waste.  But  some  considerable  streams  flow  down 
from  the  momitains  here,  and  from  great  shallow  lakes,  or  lagoons, 
and  it  was  found  that  the  land,  irrigated  from  these  streams,  was  re- 
markably fertile  and  jjarticularly  fitted  for  raising  cotton  and  grapes. 
Vast  areas  have  been  brought  under  cidtivation,  the  use  of  the 
water  from  the  streams  for  irrigation  has  ahnost  dried  up  the 
lagoons  by  witliolding  their  supply,  and  their  beds  are  now  cotton 
fields.  The  trade-centre  of  the  region.  Villa  Lerdo,  where  the  train 
stops  for  supper,  did  not  exist  fifteen  years  ago,  and  is  now  a  busy 
city  of  fifteen  or  twenty  thousand  inhabitants.     Large  fortunes  have 


104  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

been  made  in  cotton-raising  here  in  the  past  few  years,  and  tlie 
country  has  grown  as  if  it  were  in  our  own  West." 

"  How  much  warmer  it  is  than  it  was  hist  night  at  this  tune  !  " 
said  Floi-ence. 

"  That  is  because  we  are  not  only  nearly  five  hundred  miles 
further  south,  but  only  a  few  feet  above  the  same  altitude  as  El 
Paso,"  explained  Eliot.  "  This  region  is  the  lowest  part  of  the  line 
between  the  frontier  and  the  cajiital,  after  leaving  the  Rio  Grande." 


CHAPTER   X. 

ACROSS    THE    TROPICJ    OF    CANCER. 


fli 


w 


'HEN  Harry  iiwoke  the 
next  iiioriiino-  Eliot 
told  him  that  they  were 
again  over  a  mile  above  the 
sea-level.  "  We  are  just  in 
the  tropics,"  he  said.  "  If 
you  had  been  up  a  little 
earlier  you  might  have  seen 
the  point  where  we  cross 
the  Tropic  of  Cancer." 

At  the  breakfast-table 
they  were  talking  about 
being  inside  theTorridZone,an(l  Florence  remarked  that  the  country 
did  not  look  a  bit  more  tropical  than  that  of  the  day  before.  3Ir. 
Brinkley  said  that  of  course  all  the  territory  within  tlie  tropics  was 
tropical,  strictly  speaking,  but  in  the  common  use  of  the  term  only 
the  warm  country,  where  the  luxuriant  vegetation  flourished,  was 
called  tropical.  "  Here  on  the  table-lands  within  the  tropics  is  the 
true  '  Temperate  Zone,'  for  the  climate  is  always  mild  and  even  at 
all  seasons.  What  is  called  the  Temperate  Zone  is  really  the  Intem- 
perate Zone,  with  its  sudden  and  violent  changes  of  temjieratuie  and 
weather,  not  only  from  season  to  season,  but  from  dav  to  dav." 
105 


10(5  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

•'  What  a  fine  idea  it  would  be,"  said  Eliot,  "  for  the  railway 
company  to  mark  the  exact  spot  where  its  line  crosses  the  Tropic  of 
Cancer,  and  run  a  line  of  prominent  stones  out  into  the  plain  on 
either  side,  with  some  inscription  and  the  zodiacal  sign  of  Cancer, 
the  Crab,  close  at  hand.  Tourists  would  get  interested  to  see  the 
place,  and  things  pay  that  interest  the  tourist." 

"  That  reminds  me,"  Mr.  Brinkley  observed,  "  that  my  friend 
Mr.  Frederic  E.  Church,  the  famous  painter,  told  me  the  last  time 
I  was  in  Mexico  how  he  took  breakfast  on  the  Equator.  He  was 
-with  Mr.  Cyrus  W.  Field,  making  a  tour  in  South  America.  One 
morning,  while  out  in  the  neighborhood  of  Quito,  they  asked  a 
gentleman  and  lady  whom  they  met  strolling  along  the  road  if  there 
was  any  place  in  the  neighborhood  where  they  could  get  breakfast. 
The  gentleman  pointed  to  a  handsome  house  near  by  and  said  he 
thought  they  might  get  a  fair  meal  there.  He  then  added  that  he 
was  the  owner  of  the  place  and  would  be  charmed  to  have  the  honor 
of  their  company.  They  had  a  delightful  breakfast,  and  ^Nlr. 
Church,  knowing  that  the  Equator  must  be  near  by,  asked  his  host 
if  he  could  tell  him  just  where  it  was.  '  I  think  you  must  be  on  it 
now,'  he  answered,  pointing  to  a  straight  and  deeply  graven  mark 
running  across  the  floor.  Mr.  Church  looked  and  saw  that  the  line 
ran  beneath  his  own  chair,  so  tliat  lie  had  l)een  eating  lireakfast 
astride  the  Equator,  with  one  foot  in  the  Northern  Hemisphere  and 
one  in  the  Southern  !  It  seemed  that  a  party  of  French  scientists 
had  been  there,  and  located  the  exact  line  of  the  Ecpiator.  Thcv 
had  made  their  headquarters  at  that  house  for  sonic  days,  and  had 
marked  the  line  of  the  Equator  through  their  host's  dining'-room  in 
appreciation  of  his  hospitality,  so  that  at  that  jjoint,  at  least,  it  was 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  107 

soinetliiiii;-  inori'  than  wliat  the  <>tM)gniplii('S  call  '  an  imaginary 
line.'  " 

"  It  is  interi'sting  that  the  place  where  I  saw  them  lay  the  last  rail  of 
the  Mexican  Central  Railroad  near  Fresnillo,  a  little  back  of  here,  in 
March,  1884,"  said  Eliot,  "  is  very  near  the  line  of  the  Tropic  of 
Cancer.  It  was  a  smiple,  but  very  significant  ceremony,  with  the 
two  engines,  one  coming  down  from  the  frontier  and  the  other  up 
from  the  City  of  Mexico,  '  touching  noses  '  over  the  last  rail.  The 
American  consul  at  Zacateeas  stood  on  the  pilot  of  the  locomotive 
from  the  South  and  his  brother,  who  was  ]\Icxican-born  and  a  Mexi- 
can citizen,  on  that  of  the  locomotive  from  the  North.  The  Ameri- 
can brother  waved  the  Mexican  flag  and  the  Mexican  brother  the 
American  flag.  The  American  shouted  '  Viva  la  republica  de 
Mexico  !  '  and  the  Mexican,  '  Viva  los  Estados  uiiidos  del  Norte  !  ' 
(Live  the  republic  of  Mexico,  and  live  the  United  States  of  the 
North) .  Then  they  crossed  the  two  flags,  and  the  American  consul 
called,  in  Spanish,  '  As  we  two  brothers  embrace,  so  may  the  two 
sister  republics  embrace  !  '  It  was  all  spontaneous,  and  most  sym- 
bolic of  the  event.  The  laying  of  that  last  rail,  a  little  to  the  south 
of  the  Tropic  of  Cancer,  completed  the  first  railway  in  the  world  that 
had  been  built  from  the  Temperate  Zone  down  into  the  tropics.  It 
was  one  of  the  most  important  events  in  the  history  of  Mexico,  for 
it  made  her  practically  a  part  of  the  world  at  large,  and  it  brought 
the  capitals  of  the  two  largest  republics  in  North  America  into  close 
and  speedy  communication." 

While  they  were  at  breakfast  they  had  left  the  station  of  Calera. 
"  In  less  than  thirty  kilometers,"  said  Eliot,  "  between  here  and 
Zacateeas  we  climb  nearly  a  thousand  feet  — only  seven  feet  lacking." 


108  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

In  their  tortuous  course  to  attain  that  height  they  wound  steadily 
along  an  unbroken  series  of  curves,  and  they  all  stood  out  on  the 
"  quarter-deck  "  to  watch  the  landscape  widen  g-lorioiisly  out  as  they 
steadily  ascended,  into  great  expanses  of  sun-bathed  plains  and 
rugged  mountains.  It  looked  as  if  they  were  entering  a  region  of 
great  military  importance,  for  on  the  hill-tops  and  along  their  slojjcs 
were  huge  structures  of  stone  resembling-  strongly  fortified  castles. 
Smooth  and  well-built  roads  wound  their  way  up  the  hills  like  great 
white  ribbons  looped  along  over  the  brown  mountain. 

"  What  are  all  those  castles  ?  "  asked  Florence. 

"  They  are  not  castles,  but  mines,"  answered  Eliot,  "  or  rather 
the  buildings  of  mines.  They  build  to  last  in  this  country,  you  see. 
And  they  had  to  build  strongly,  too.  Those  mining  headcpiarters 
are  fortified  like  castles,  for  in  the  old  days,  up  to  Avithin  fifteen 
years,  even,  the  owners  of  the  mines  had  to  depend  upon  themselves, 
for  the  most  part,  for  the  defence  of  their  property  against  robbers, 
who  scoured  the  country  in  organized  bands,  and  against '  pronuncia- 
dos,'  men  who  '  pronounced,'  as  they  say  in  Spanish  for  getting  up 
an  insurrection,  or  revolution.  That  was  in  most  instances  done,  not 
on  account  of  any  wrongs  to  be  righted,  but  as  a  pretext  for  sys- 
tematic robbery  of  rich  mines  and  haciendas,  or  great  plantations. 
These  great  mines  often  had  many  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars, 
either  in  bullion  or  coin  stored  within  their  walls  and  awaiting 
a  favorable  opportunity  for  transportation  across  the  country  in 
Sonductus  '  or  treasure-trains  of  bullion-laden  wagons  escorted  by 
strong  military  guards.  So  they  were  })repared  for  attacks,  and  at 
times  had  to  withstand  regular  sieges." 

Meanwhile  they  began  to  pass  through  clusters  of  buildings,  out- 


FOUNTAIN    AT    ZACATIXAS. 
See  page  1 1 2. 


THE  CRUISE  OF  A  LAND-YACHT.  109 

skirts  of  the  city,  disposed  at  haphazard  over  the  hills,  and  here  and 
there  a  ravine  was  spanned  hy  a  series  of  slender  arches,  carrying 
acqueducts  for  the  water  raised  from  mines.  Water  is  an  article 
carefully  cherished  in  a  region  like  Zacatecas,  where  rain  is  scarce. 

"  Here  is  the  next  to  the  highest  point  on  our  route  to  Mexico  — 
eight  thousand  and  sixty-five  feet  above  the  sea,"  said  Eliot.  "  It 
is  also  a  divide  between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  and  we  are  now  on 
the  Pacific  slope  for  the  first  time.  We  shall  keep  along  on  this 
slope  all  through  the  day,  and  tonight,  just  beyond  Queretaro,  we 
shall  return  to  the  Atlantic  slope  again.  That  shows  we  are  follow- 
ing along  the  backbone  of  the  continent  pretty  closely.  The  City 
of  Mexico  is  on  neither  slope,  for  its  valley  has  no  outlet.  But  when 
the  drainage  tunnel  is  completed  it  Avill  be  brought  onto  the  Atlantic; 
slope,  for  the  waters  of  its  lakes  and  streams  will  How  down  into  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico." 

The  motion  of  their  train  showed  that  they  were  now  running 
along  at  a  level,  and  in  a  moment  they  stopped  at  the  station,  where 
there  was  a  bustling  crowd  in  waiting.  Below,  to  the  left,  there 
reached  away  a  narrow  valley,  entirely  filled  with  the  great  mass  of 
buildings  of  a  large  city.  It  was  an  important-looking  place.  They 
looked  (lo\yu  upon  the  flat  roofs  and  traced  lines  of  crooked  streets 
following  the  irregular  surface.  Handsome  towers  and  domes  lifted 
their  heads  on  all  sides,  and  the  solid  buildings  spread  irregularly  up 
the  mountain  slopes  and  extended  up  side-valleys  and  ravines,  dis- 
appearing around  projecting  headlands.  On  the  crest  of  a  steep 
clitf  rising  over  the  centre  of  the  city  there  stood  a  romantic-looking 
ehiuch. 

"That    cliif,"     said    Eliot,    "is    called    La  Bufa.      Tiu're    is    a 


110  THE    CllUISE    OF    A    LAND- YACHT. 

iiiiiie  up  there,  as  there  are  mines  all  around,  ahove,  beside,  and 
even  dii-ectly  beneath  the  city.  That  church  is  the  chapel  for  the 
men  working-  in  the  mine.  Every  one  of  the  great  mines  had  its 
chapel  in  former  days,  and  it  was  the  pride  of  the  mine-owners 
to  make  their  chajiels  as  magnificent  as  possible,  so  they  often 
lavished  treasures  on  them.  This  is  one  of  the  great  mining  cities 
of  the  world,  and  one  of  the  three  largest  in  Mexico —  Guanajuato 
and  Pachuca  being  the  other  two.  They  say  that  over  a  billion 
dollars  in  silver  has  been  taken  from  the  mines  here  in  the  past 
three  centuries  and  more  since  the  city  was  founded,  and  they  are 
still  producing  richly." 

The  young  ladies  exhausted  their  stock  of  superlatives  on  the 
picturesque  spectacle  before  them  and  Mr.  Brinkley  laughed  and 
told  them  that  their  supply  of  enthusiastic  adjectives  would  be  worn 
threadbare  before  they  got  through  with  Mexico. 

"  Why,  I  had  no  idea  there  was  anything  like  it  on  the  Ameri- 
can continent  !     It  looks  as  old  as  —  as  Jerusalem  !  "  said  ^Mabel. 

"  When  a  city  gets  to  the  age  of  three  hundred  ye>n-s,  or  so,  two 
or  three  thousand  years  in  addition  doesn't  make  an  appreciable 
difference  in  its  looks,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley. 

Eliot  pointed  to  the  street-cars  standing  at  the  station.  "  They 
run  down  into  the  city  without  any  mules,  for  it  is  down-grade  all 
the  way,  and  from  the  central  plaza  other  cars  run  in  the  same  way 
all  the  Avay  down  the  valley  to  the  city  of  Guadalupe,  on  account  of 
(he  milder  climate.  The  mules  for  bringing  the  cars  back  are 
dri\cn  down  ni  droves." 

As  they  started,  the  young  people  all  declared  they  wished  they 
might  stop  over  and  see  the  place,  but  Mr.  Brinkley  said  he  probably 


THE  CRUISE  OF  A  LAND-YACHT.  Ill 

would  on  the  way  back,  if  they  wanted  to  after  seeing  Guanajuato, 
which  was  finer  yet.  The  air  was  of  a  delightful  temperature,  with 
an  invigorating  quality  in  its  thinness  which  made  Harry,  as  he 
breathed  (luickly,  say  that  he  could  not  get  enough  of  it.  They 
wound  along  the  side  of  the  valley,  as  on  a  shelf  above  the  city,  and 
in  one  place  they  coidd  see,  in  three  successive  places  below  them, 
the  track  over  which  they  were  to  go.  They  looked  down  into  the 
busy  court-yards  of  mines,  and  in  one  they  saw  a  gTeat  herd  of 
mules  driven  rapidly  about.  "  That  is  to  extract  the  silver  l)y  tlie 
old  Mexican  method,  called  the  '  Patio  process,'"  said  Eliot.  ^^ Patio 
means  court.  The  ore  is  crushed  and  mixed  mto  a  sort  of  paste,  and 
after  it  has  been  exposed  to  the  sun  and  kneaded  over  by  the  feet  of 
those  mules  for  several  weeks  it  is  ready  for  the  extraction  of  the  silver. 
Those  round  towers  about  fifteen  feet  high,  with  light  smoke  rising 
out  of  tlicni,  are  kilns  for  roasting  the  ore.  Here  is  a  mining-shaft 
close  to  the  track.  Do  you  see  that  man  sitting  there  and  cracking 
stones  with  a  hammer?  He  is  sorting  the  ore  according  to  its  rich- 
ness, and  he  gets  three  reales,  or  thirty-seven  and  one-half  cents  a 
carga,  or  three  hundred  pounds.  The  quantity  is  called  a  rnrt/d  be- 
cause it  is  the  regulation  load,  or  '  cargo  '  for  a  '  burro  '  or  donkey. 
You  know  there  is  a  saying  that  a  burro  never  dies,  but  there  is  an 
evidence  of  it,"  and  he  pointed  to  another  shaft  beside  the  track  out 
of  Avhich  a  great  bucket  rose  as  they  passed,  hoisted  by  a  mule  at  a 
windlass ;  it  held  over  a  hogshead  of  water,  which  was  tijiped  out 
into  a  trough  that  conducted  it  into  an  acqueduct.  "  That  l)ucket 
is  made  of  burro-hides,  and  the  hair  is  on  the  outside.  It  is  the 
primitive  way  of  draining  the  mines,  but  since  the  railway  was  built 
coal  is   brought   in    pretty  cheaply,  so  that    it    is    used   in    running 


112  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAXD-YACHT. 

pimiping-engines  for  the  great  mines,  like  those  you  see  where  the 
tall  chimneys  are  on  the  mountain-side  over  there. 

"  Do  you  know  that  this  railway  actually  runs  over  a  bed  of 
silver  along  here  ?  All  this  rock-ballast  is  silver-ore  from  the 
Zacatecas  mines,  of  such  a  low  grade  that  it  would  not  pay  to  work 
it,  but  there  are  probably  many  thousands  of  dollars'  worth  passed 
over  by  these  trains." 

They  lost  the  city  from  sight  and  passed  along  on  their  tortuous 
and  rapidly  descending  way  on  the  slope  of  the  narrow  vaUey,  ^vith 
the  dry  bed  of  a  stream  below.  "  That  is  the  Zacatecas  river,"  said 
Eliot. 

"  River  !  Where  is  the  water  ?  "  asked  Florence. 
"  0,  a  Mexican  river,  at  least  here  on  the  table-land,  usually  con- 
sists more  of  rocks  than  water,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year," 
Eliot  responded.  "  I  believe  there  is  a  better  water-supply  in  Zacat- 
ecas now,  but  the  last  time  I  was  there  it  was  so  scanty  that  tlie 
water  was  dipped  out  of  the  fountain  in  the  main  plaza  by  the 
women  who  come  there  for  it  with  great  jars,  faster  than  it  ran  in. 
There  is  so  little  room  in  the  centre  of  the  city  that  they  have  arched 
over  the  river  continuously  in  many  places,  to  give  space  for  ad- 
ditional buikUngs." 

Harry  said  :  "  I  see  a  little  damp  place  here  and  there  down  in 
the  gravel  just  about  big  enough  to  give  an  English  sparrow  a 
bath." 

"  Oh  how  glorious  !  There  is  water  enough  out  there  !  "  called 
Mabel,  pointing  oft'  into  the  distance,  towards  the  southwest.  They 
were  now  just  above  the  city  of  Guadalu])e,  nestling  snugly  at  the 
mouth  of  the  valley,  which  opened  out  into  a  vast  ocean-like  ^jlain, 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LANU-YACHT.  113 

out  of  which  isolated  mountain  groups  rose  in  the  bhie  distance. 
Several  miles  away  a  large  lake  spread  out  on  the  level,  glistening  in 
the  sunlight  like  a  sheet  of  burnished  Zacatecas  silver. 

"  That  lake  is  a  jjresa,  or  reservoir,  where  water  is  stored,  or 
'  impounded,'  as  we  engineers  say,  for  irrigating  purposes.  It  also 
gives  a  considerable  water-power  at  its  dam  for  a  good-sized  factory, 
—  a  woolen-mill,  I  believe.  Just  along  here  is  where  I  first  saw  the 
end  of  the  track  when  they  were  building  northward.  I  came  up 
here  with  Major  Harrington  wlien  lie  was  su])crintfiid('iit  of  the 
track-department,  toward  the  end  of  N(jvembcr,  and  wc  celebrated 
Thanksgiving  with  a  turkey-dinner  on  his  car.  It  is  an  interesting 
sight  to  see  track-laying  in  Mexico.  There  are  not  lots  of  temporary 
board-shanties,  and  the  ground  isn't  covered  with  tin  cans  when  tlie 
camp  moves  on,  as  with  us.  The  Avorkmen  were  all  Mexicans  and 
they  lived  verv  simply.  At  night  all  that  the  most  of  them  would 
do  would  be  to  spread  their  jjctafes,  or  pieces  of  straw  matting,  out 
on  the  ground,  and  roU  themselves  up  in  their  blankets  and  go  to 
sleep.  Favored  ones  would  sleep  under  the  boarding-cars  where  the 
officials  lived,  making  their  berths  between  the  sleepers.  Others 
woidd  sleep  in  the  cidverts  and  would  burrow  in  the  sides  of  the 
ditches  beside  the  track,  excavating  little  dens  in  the  earth  —  which, 
you  see,  is  very  hard  nearly  everywhere  all  through  Mexico  —  a  sort 
of  gravel  consolidated  into  a  substance  that  is  the  next  thing  to 
stone.  That  is  the  reason  why  all  these  cuttings  for  the  track  have 
perpendicular  sides,  or  nearly  so.  There  is  no  frost  to  crund)le  the 
banks  away,  and  so  much  money  is  saved  hi  the  work,  for  the  slop- 
ing requires  a  large  amount  of  additional  excavation. 

"  But    I    was   telling   al)()Ut    tlie   track-layers.     Tiie   families   of 


114  THE  CRUISE  OF  A  LAND-YACHT. 

many  of  the  laborers  were  with  tlieni,  and  they  lived  like  nomads. 
Those  laborers  who  had  been  with  the  force  the  longest  were  the 
most  fortunate  as  to  their  quarters.  They  had  been  privileged  to 
build  little  cubby-like  domiciles  in  the  shape  of  platforms  suspended 
beneath  the  cars  and  occupying  the  space  between  the  trucks.  These 
were  walled  about  with  matting.  These  nests  were  hardly  high 
enough  to  sit  upright  in,  but  the  men  lived  there  with  their  families ; 
that  is,  they  slept  there.  Some  of  them  had  been  with  the  force  ever 
since  construction  began  at  the  city  of  Mexico.  I  saw  children  play- 
ing around,  three  years  old,  who  had  been  born  in  those  kennels 
underneath  the  cars  a  few  miles  north  of  the  capital." 

They  shortly  began  to  duiib  another  range,  where  they  saw 
forests  of  the  enormous  great  tree-like  yuccas  that  Eliot  had  spoken 
of,  and  dense  thickets  of  the  nopal,  or  prickly-pear  cactus,  covering 
a  large  portion  of  the  mountains  with  their  deep  green.  "  They 
look  like  a  lot  of  plates  stuck  together  edgewise,  one  after  the 
other,"  said  Harry. 

"  That  is  the  most  characteristic  feature  of  Mexican  vegetation," 
said  Eliot ;  "  and  it  is  one  of  the  national  emblems  of  this  country. 
Do  you  see  this  Mexican  dollar,  with  its  fine  design  —  an  eagle  Avith 
a  snake  in  its  beak  and  a  nopal  IjcIow  ?  It  might  be  taken  to  symbol- 
ize the  slaying  of  the  serpent  Tyranny  by  the  eagle  Freedom,  but  it 
is  the  Mexican  coat  of  arms  handed  down  tVom  the  Aztecs.  When 
that  ])eople  migrated  southward  they  were  told  l)y  their  sooth-sayers, 
according  to  tradition,  that  when  they  came  to  a  place  where  they 
saw  an  eagle  sitting  on  a  nopal  with  a  snake  in  its  beak  there  would 
be  their  abiding  place.  After  long  wanderings  they  canic  to  tlie 
valley  of  Mexico,  and  there  they  saw.  on  a  rock  out  in  the  lake,  that 


THE    CKUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


115 


whifh  liacl  been  predicted.     So  there  they  settled  and  fonnded  the 

Aztec  reahn,  out  of  the  ruins  of  which  Mexico  of  to-day  has  grown. 

For   Mexico   of   today  is  composed  chiefly  <>f 

the  Aztec  and  kindred  Indian  races  that,  to  a 

greater  or  less  extent,  have  adopted  the  civiliza- 
tion  of    their    conquerors.     So    when  Mexico 

became  independent    it    took  for  its  national 

emblem  the  sacred  token  of  the  Aztecs." 

"  And  the  Mexicans,  as  a  race,  sympathize 

with   their  Aztec   progenitors    today,  and    the 

memory  of  Cortez  is  still  so  unpopular  that  no 

monimient  has  ever  been  erected  to  him,"  said 

Mr.  Brinkley. 

All  through  the  day  their  route  lay  through 

a  country  that,  for  the  greater  part,  was  richly 

cultivated,  with  intervals  of  rough  and  rocky 

upland.     Their  altitude  frequently  changed  as  they  wound  across 

the  flanks  of  mountains  from  one  great  sunny  valley  down  into 
another.  With  the  varying  height  the  cli- 
mate varied,  but  the  change  in  this  respect 
was  not  sharp  during  the  daylight  hours  ;  on 
the  lower  levels  the  air  had  a  softer  feeling, 
and  on  the  higher  they  felt  its  thinner  quality, 
and  found  that  it  was  cool  and  bracing  out 
i  of  the  sinilight.  Eliot  also  pointed  out  how 
tlic  character  of  the  vegetation  ('hanged  witii 
v^  the  changes  in  height. 

Ilarrv  had  brought  along  one  of  tlic   new 


116  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

instantaneous  cameras  that  operate  with  a  roll  of  sensitive  film,  and 
he  found  abundant  occupation  at  the  various  stations,  catching  the 
strange-looking  scenes ;  interesting  features  of  building,  and  the  varied 
groups  of  people  assembled  at  such  places  —  men  Avatli  their  broad 
sombreros  and  gay-hued  zarapas,  the  peasants  usually  in  loose  cotton 
garments  that  once  had  been  white  ;  women  in  cheap  calico  prints  and 
with  the  inevitable  rebozo  about  their  heads ;  children  with  but  a 
scanty  shirt  that  was  often  a  lace-work  of  tatters,  while,  at  the  minor 
stations,  little  brown  tots  were  to  be  seen  frisking  about  in  a  cherub- 
like  state.  Then  there  were  beggars  in  over-plentiful  quantity,  in 
all  stages  of  dilapidation  and  want  of  repair,  mth  hands  extended 
and  whining  in  pitiful  tones  words  like  "  Por  amor  de  Dios,  senor, 
una  corta  caridad ;  un  centavito,  nada  mas, 
senor  !  "  (For  the  love  of  God,  seiior,  a  short 
charity  ;  one  little  cent,  and  nothing  more, 
senor  ! ) 

"  Oh,  the  poor  things !  "  cried  Florence, 
svmpathetically,  the  first  time  she  saw  them 
assembled  in  force,  and  in  all  their  professional 
regalia. 

"  Don't  give  them  a  cent  !  "  Eliot  said.  "  They  are  humbugs, 
everv  onv  of  them.  These  beggars  are  the  worst  things  about 
Mexico,  I  believe.  They  always  make  a  better  livelihood  than  these 
jjoor  jieasants  who  work  hard  from  daylight  to  dark  for  a  few  cents 
a  (lav.  Why,  at  Amecameca,  one  old  fraud  was  pointed  out  to  me 
as  till'  owner  of  three  houses,  and  many  of  the  people  who  neverthe- 
le.ss  gave  hun  alms  and  looked  on  liim  as  sort  of  sanctified  by  his 
occupation,  knew  it,  too  !      The  reason  why  l)eggars  are  so  plenty  in 


THE    CRUISK    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  J  I" 

countries  like  this  is  that  the  people  have  long  been  taught  to  regard 
beggary  as  a  desirable  institution,  enco\iraging  the  virtue  of  charity. 
But  to  nourish  an  evil  in  order  that  to  ameliorate  it  people  may  give 
themselves  the  pleasure  of  doing  what  they  regard  as  a  virtuous  act 
is  one  of  the  worst  forms  of  selfishness." 

•'  That  is  well  put,  Eliot,"  Mrs.  Briiddey  said.  •'  The  best  way 
to  deal  with  any  evil  is  to  seek  its  cause  and  try  to  remove  that. 
And  seeing  all  these  poor  people  everywhere  in  Mexico,  working  so 
hard  and  patiently,  I  cannot  make  that  fact  agree  with  what  is  so 
often  quoted  from  Lempriere,  the  French  writer,  and  which  1  came 
across  in  this  guide-book  :  •  The  merciful  hand  of  Providence  has 
bestowed  on  the  Mexicans  a  magnificant  land  abounding  in  resources 
of  all  kinds  —  a  land  where  none  ought  to  be  poor,  and  where  mis- 
ery ought  to  be  unknown.  A  land  whose  products  and  riches  of 
every  kind  are  abundant  and  as  varied  as  they  are  rich.  It  is  a 
country  endowed  to  ])rofusion  vnth  every  gift  that  man  can  desiie 
or  envy  ;  all  the  metals  from  gold  to  lead  ;  everv  sort  of  climate  from 
perpetual  snow  to  tropical  heat,  and  of  inconceivable  fertilitv.'  " 

"  That  is  all  strictly  true,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley,  "  and  it  seems  piti- 
ful that  where  there  is  such  an  abundance  the  wants  of  all 
should  not  be  met,  and  that  these  jioor  ])eople  should  have  to  toil  so 
to  keep  soul  and  body  together." 

"  One  reason  is,  that  there  is  really  an  aristocnicv  here  in  tliis 
republic  ;  that  the  land  is  nearly  all  licld  by  a  few  persons,  in 
enormous  areas  like  this  great  stretch  of  graln-Helds  tliat  we  see  now 
spreading  away  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach.  Land-owners  here  are 
not  taxed  on  what  they  own,  but  onlv  on  their  income  from  it.  So 
tliey  only  cari*  to  imjjrovc  it  just  enough  to  give  them  princelv  in- 
comes, and  these  poor  peasants  are  still  practically  slaves." 


118  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

"  How  they  must  suffer  !  "  said  Florence. 

"  No,  they  do  not  suffer  so  mucli  as  we  might  suppose,"  Eliot 
answered.  "  They  are  so  ignorant  that  they  have  no  idea  of  any 
other  condition  than  their  present  one,  which  they  suppose  to  be  in 
the  unchangeable  order  of  things.  So  they  are  really  happier  than 
our  working-classes  at  home  who  are  so  much  lietter  off,  but  who, 
by  their  intelligence,  know  how  much  l)etter  situated  still  are  those 
who  do  not  work  so  hard.  Our  workers  know  about  the  good  things 
that  others  enjoy ;  they  read  and  hear  about  them  every  day,  and  so 
they  want  those  things  themselves.  If  Mexico  ever  has  a  good  sys- 
tem of  public  schools  the  people  for  a  while  Avill  not  be  so  happy,  for 
it  aWU  make  them  discontented  with  their  lot,  but  that  will  make 
them  progressive." 


;*^'« 


CHAPTER   XL 


A    SUMMER    AFTERNOON    IN    JANUARY. 


I T  -n  IS  shortly  after  noon  when  the  train  stopped 
*   ■  ')iisy-looking  station.    "AguascaUentes," 
(1  Eliot  ;  "  The  City  of    Hot  Waters,  is 
ih  it  it  means." 

"  And  hot  weather  too,  I 
should  say,  by  the  looks  of  things," 
Florence  remarked.  "  This  is  real 
summer,  is  n't  it '?  Look  at  those 
delightful  green  trees  !  "  and  she 
pointed  to  an  avenue  of  beautiful 
great  alamos,  or  cottonwoods,  as 
they  call  the  poplar  family  in  the 
West,  crossing  the  railway  track 
and  running  olf  into  the  distance. 
"  Yes,  we  have  said  good-bye  to  winter  for  good,  tliis  season, 
although  we  shall  return  to  spring-time  again  by  to-morrow.  But  it 
is  not  a  city  of  hot  weather  here,  just  as  the  water  is  really  not  hot 
—  only  agreeably  warm.  AguascaUentes  has  an  almost  perfect  cli- 
niate^  and  it  is  so  healthy  that  they  say  people  never  die  here  ;  when 
they  get  old  they  smiply  dry  up  and  blow  away !  There  is  very 
little  difference  between  summer  and  Avinter  here." 

As  the  train  stopped  half  an  hour  for  dinner,  they  all  went  out  for 


120  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

a  promenade  on  the  station  platform,  and  Eliot  and  Harry  ran  out  to 
see  the  ditch  of  warm  water  that  runs  down  into  the  city  on  one  side  of 
the  avenue.  It  was  a  broad  ditch,  with  smoothly  cemented  sides. 
The  water  was  soapy- looking-,  for  people  of  the  laboring  and  peasant 
classes  were  continually  bathing  in  it,  singly  and  in  groups.  Ehot 
pointed  out  a  family  party,  sitting  comfortably  with  the  water  up  to 
their  necks,  while  their  clothing,  which  they  had  washed,  was  drying 
on  the  bushes  over  their  heads.  "  The  people  here  keep  pretty 
clean,  for  the  climate  permits  them  to  bathe  in  the  open  aii-  the  year 
through,  and  there  are  few  who  do  not  do  it,"  said  Eliot.  "  The 
water  in  that  ditch  comes  from  the  springs  at  the  end  of  this  avenue, 
two  miles  or  so  from  the  city.  You  can  see  what  a  volume  must 
come  out  of  the  ground  by  the  amount  running  here,  while 
beside  that  ditch  there  runs  a  covered  aqueduct  to  bring  the  water 
to  the  baths  in  the  city,  fresh  from  the  springs.  There  are  baths 
out  there  too,  and  many  go  out  by  preference,  for  the  water  there  is 
warmer,  of  course.  It  cools  off  considerably  before  it  reaches  the 
city.  Now  let  us  run  over  for  a  look  at  the  city  baths  ;  they  are 
close  by  the  station." 

A  few  steps  brought  them  to  a  beautiful  garden  filled  with 
brilliant  flowers,  beside  a'  long,  low  building  with  arcaded  front. 
This  arcade  bounded  the  garden  on  two  sides,  and  along  the  edge  of 
the  open  corridor  there  ran  a  stream  of  clear  water  in  a  channel  of 
masonry,  lined  smoothly  with  cement,  and  highly  polished.  "  Why, 
this  seems  to  be  a  swell  place  !  "  Harry  exclaimed. 

"  Well,  pcrh;ii)s  it  might  be  called  so,  for  only  the  more  respect- 
able classes  come  here.  The  peones  all  bathe  out  in  that  ditch, 
where  it  doesn't  I'ost  anvtliing." 


THE  CRUISE  OF  A  LAND-YACHT. 


121 


Eliot  explained  to  the  man  at  the  door  that  they  just  wanted  to 
look  inside  ;  they  hadn't  time  to  take  a  bath,  and  were  strangers 
who  had  nni  over  from  the  train.  With  a  courteous  wave  of  the 
hand,  and  a  "  Pasen  Ustedes  !  "  (Pass  in,  sirs  !)  that  official  gave 
them  permission  in  a  way  that  ahuost  seemed  as  if  it  were  they  who 
were  conferring  the  favor.  Two  well-dressed  Mexican  youths  had 
laid  down  tickets  just  ahead  of  them,  and  they  followed  them  along 
the  corridor.  They  entered  a  place  where  there  was  a  large  oval 
swunming-basin,  or  alberca,  as  it  is  called  ui  Spanish.  It  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  series  of  cell-like  dressing-rooms  and  a  broad  tiled 
space  between  them  and  the  basin,  which  was  brimming  with  lunpid 
water  that  reflected  a  cloudless  sky.  Through  the  gratings  of  a 
handsome  archway  were  seen  the  green  and  bloom  of  a  garden  be- 
yond. An  attendant  brought  the  young  Mexicans  some  things  on  a 
tray  and  over  his  arm,  and  they  disappeared  in  one  of  the  rooms. 

"  There  is  a  large  towel,  a  bath-sheet,  a  cake  of  soap,  a  clean 
comb  and  brush,  and  a  little  bottle  of  oil  for  each,  and  the  whole 
thing,  bath  and  all,  costs  only  a  few  cents  —  not  over  a  real,  I  be- 
lieve, or  twelve  and  one-half  cents  Mexican." 

"  That  is  cheap  enough !  "  said  Harry. 

"  This  place  is  run  by  the  city,  and  there  are  dozens  of  Mexican 
towns  with  fine  public  baths  such  as  you  could  not  find  in  the 
largest  cities  in  the  United  States." 

"  By  the  city  ?  Why,  this  beats  the  Athletic  Club  swunming- 
bath  !     I  should  say  our  cities  might  learn  something  from  Mexico  !  " 

When  they  entered  there  was  no  one  in  the  bath,  but  while  they 
were  talking  a  swiaimer  suddenly  shot  up  out  of  the  water,  followed 
by  a  companion. 


122  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

"  Where  in  the  world  did  they  come  from  ?  "  demanded  Harry, 
with  wide-ojwn  eyes. 

EHot  laughed  and  showed  him  inside  one  of  the  dressing-rooms, 
a  large  apartment,  Avith  steps  descending  into  a  tank  of  water,  fom- 
or  five  feet  deep,  out  of  which  a  tunnel-like  arch,  several  feet  long, 
ran  under  the  tiled  walk  out  into  the  tank.  "  They  dove  out 
through  that  place,"  he  said.  In  the  dressing-room  there  was  a 
separate  tank  for  use  with  soap,  which  a  notice  said  was  forbidden 
in  the  alberca  and  the  connecting  water. 

Returning  to  the  train,  they  found  the  young  ladies  looking  at 
some  remarkably  Ufe-like  representations  of  poultry  —  hens,  chick- 
ens, roosters,  and  other  familiar  fowl  —  little  images  covered  with 
feathers  very  skilfully  and  naturally  applied,  and  the  positions  of 
picking  up  grain,  scratching,  crowong,  etc.,  imitated  -n-ith  exactness. 
And  all  through  the  day  at  every  principal  station  they  found  some 
pretty  specialty  of  the  locality  offered  for  sale.  At  one  place  it 
might  be  some  peculiar  toys  or  ornaments,  like  nests  of  nicely  woven 
little  baskets  fitted  snugly  into  each  other,  at  another  some  odd  kind 
of  pottery ;  again  it  would  be  something  in  the  way  of  apparel,  like 
embroidery,  lace,  or  leather-work  ;  and  still  again  there  would  be 
sweetmeats  of  such  a  kind  as  could  be  only  found  at  that  place. 
At  one  station  there  were  brought  around  some  things  that  looked 
like  pieces  of  some  coarse-grained  firewood,  sawed  into  sections 
three  or  four  inches  long,  and  soaked  in  some  dark  licpiid. 

"  What  can  those  things  be  ?  "  asked  Florence.  "  Surely  not 
something  to  cat  ?  " 

"  They  look  like  sections  of  cross-ties,"  said  Harry. 

"  Well,  1  shouldn't  wonder  if  these  peojilc  lould  even  manage  to 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  V2'3 

fix  lip  a  cross-tie  so  as  to  mako  it  taste  pretty  nice  !  "  laui;'lu'(l  Mr. 
Brinkley. 

"  In  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  k!t  us  try  some  of  it  !  "  said 
Mabel. 

So  a  considerable  quantity  was  bought  for  three  cents.  "  I  told 
you  so!"  shouted  Harry,  in  mock  triumph.  "  Cross-ties  boiled  in 
molasses,  as  sure  as  fate  !  " 

It  was  some  soft  vegetable  substance,  with  a  coarse  fibre  ;  it  was 
easily  cut,  and  when  chewed  yielded  an  abundance  of  watery  juice 
that  tasted  like  a  very  thin  syrup  of  brown  sugar.  "  What  a  strange 
thing  for  confectionery  !  "  said  Mabel.     "  What  can  it  be  ?  " 

"  Well,  it  Avould  probably  not  be  exactly  the  thing  for  Huyler's ! " 
said  Eliot.  "  It  is  the  root  of  the  mescal  maguey  which  we  have 
seen  growing  all  over  the  country  to-day,  on  the  uplands  ;  the  kind 
of  aloe,  or  century-plant,  whose  roots  they  distil  mescal  from.  The 
roots  are  very  juicy  and  sweet,  and  boiling  them  a  little  makes  them 
like  this.  The  common  people  are  very  fond  of  it.  Like  sugai-- 
cane,  they  can  chew  on  it  for  a  long  time  ;  it  '  stands  by  '  like  the 
chewing-gimi  of  the  North  !  " 

It  was  along  past  four  o'clock  when  they  saw,  from  the  summit 
of  a  divide,  a  pleasant  landscape  stretched  below  them ;  a  wide  valley 
with  its  inevitable  rim  of  mountains  ;  there  were  spread  out  upon  the 
brown  plain  of  the  levels  two  or  three  gleaming  lakes  set  amid  what 
looked  like  other  lakes  of  soft  spring-like  green,  in  the  shajie  of  great 
fields  of  young  barley.  Out  of  the  valley  there  rose  two  large  towers 
close  together.  "  Tliat  is  the  great  church  of  Lagos,  the  '  City  of 
Fools,'  "  said  Eliot.  "  But  Lagos  doesn't  mean  fools ;  it  is  hi 
C'mdad  dc  Lagos,  the  City  of  Lakes,  but  its  nickname  is  'La  Ciudad 


124 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


de  los  Tontos.'     Ton  fos  means  iooh.    That 
is  the  reputation  that  Lagos  has  all  through 
Mexico,  and  all   the  stories   of  absurd   say- 
ings and   doings,  and   of   what   we   would 
call  Irish  bulls,  are  located  there.      Some 
of  them  a])pear  to  have  a  foundation  in 
fact,    too.       For    instance,    there    is    a 
bridge   upon  which    there    is   an    in- 
scription  to  this  effect :     '  This  is  a 
/f\  ~''¥^j'/      ^         \    bridge,   which,  in    the    year    so-and- 
^         ^  1    ^  so,  was  built  here  !  ' 

"  One  of  the  best  stories  is  that  of  how  a  Lagos  man  moved  a 
hole.  Near  his  house  there  was  a  large  hole  in  the  ground,  and  he 
did  not  like  the  looks  of  it.  So  he  decided  to  remove  it.  He  there- 
fore filled  it  up  with  earth  dug  from 


m   . 
He\ 


But    tliis    made     a    second  hole, 
earth   dug   from  a   third  hole,   in    the 
kept    on,    and    step    by   step   the   hole 
farther  and  farther  oft",  until  finally  he 
it  to  tlie  river,  where  he  got  rid  of   it 

"  At  one  time  a  considerable  crop  oB 
on  the  roof  of  their  great  church.  After 
deliberation  as  to  the  best  way  to  get  rid 
of  the  grass,  the  Board  of'  AldernuMi  voted 
to  buy  a  cow,  hoist  her  up  onto  the  roof, 
and  let  her  eat  away  the  grass  ! 

"  One  of  their  principal  buildings,  — 
the  City  Hall,  I  believe  —  was  not  in  ex- 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LANll-YACHT.  125 

actly  the  jiositioii  tliey  wuuted  it  ;  it  was  somewhat  too  near  tlie 
street.  So  the  ahlermeii  i-allcd  all  the  citizens  to  assemhle  and 
unite  in  giving-  it  one  grand  push ;  that  would  move  it  back. 
But  how  would  they  know  when  they  had  pushed  it  far  enough  ? 
A  bright  idea  struck  the  alcalde ;  they  could  push  better  without 
their  great  broad  sombreros  on  their  heads  and  their  zarapes  about  their 
shoulders,  and  so,  obedient  to  his  (•ommand,  they  went  around  to  the 
rear  of  the  building  and  carefully  laid  down  theii'  sombreros  and 
zarapes  in  a  long  line.  When  they  got  the  building  moved  to  that 
point,  it  would  be  just  right.  Then  they  aU  went  back  to  the  front 
side  and  prepared  to  join  in  a  mighty  push.  While  they  were  aU 
pushing,  grunting,  and  puffing  in  concert,  some  thieves  came  along, 
and  ran  off  with  all  the  sombreros  and  zarapes,  making  a  rich  haul. 
When  the  citizens  repaired  to  the  rear  again  to  see  what  result  their 
efforts  had  met  with  they  were  astonished  to  find  theu-  things  all 
gone.  Alas  !  they  had  pushed  too  hard,  they  said  ;  their  powerful 
efforts  had  indeed  moved  the  great  stone  building,  but  had  moved  it 
so  far  as  to  pass  the  line,  and  their  things  were  now  all  hopelessly 
crushed  beneath  the  massive  walls !  " 

"  I  learned  a  curious  fact  in  photography  from  a  picture  of  that 
church  in  Lagos,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley.  "  It  is  a  grand  ( luircli. 
When  Jackson,  the  Denver  photographer,  took  his  magnificent  series 
of  Mexican  views  several  years  ago,  that  church  was  one  of  the  sub- 
jects. I  happened  in  at  Ticknor's  one  day,  when  my  friend  Ware, 
the  editor  of  the  American  Architect,  showed  me  a  copy  from  that 
photograph  which  he  had  just  had  made  for  reproduction  in  his 
journal,  together  Avith  Jackson's  original.  Looking  at  the  facade  in 
the  photograph  by  Jackson,  one   could   see  only  a   uniform  mass  of 


126 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


dark  shadow  in  the  deep  recess  of  the  great  doorway.  But  Mr. 
Ware  held  it  iij)  so  that  the  Hght  shone  through  it  as  through  a 
transparency,  and  then  coukl  be  seen  all  the  detail  of  the  rich  wood- 
carving  of  the  doors.  Then  holding  np  the  photograph  of  the  pho- 
tograph, he  pointed  out  the  same  effect  when  the  light  shone  through 
that.  This  proved  that  the  lens  of  the  camera  is  sensitive  to  things 
which  the  eye  cannot  perceive,  and  that  although  it  may  be  impos- 
sible for  the  eye  to  see  certam  things  in  a  photograph,  nevertheless 
they  are  still  there." 

At  the  station  in  Lagos  there  were  tramway  cars  in  waiting,  as 
they  found  at  nearly  every  considerable  jjlace 
along  the  line ;  familiar-looking  American-built 
cars  such  as  may  be  seen  nearly  the  whole  world 
over,  now-a-days.  In  Mexico,  the  street-railways 
are  called  tranvias  ;  the  second  part  of  the  word 
is  literally  translated  into  Spanish,  whilst  the 
English  tram  is  translated  by  the  resemblance  in 
sound  into  "  tran,"  which  is  appropriate  in  this 
connection,  for  it  is  used  in  the  sense  of  motion, 
as  forming  the  root  of  words  like  transit,  trans- 
port, transfer.  The  English  word  trcijn,  how- 
ever, has  a  quite  different  origin,  since  it  means 
coal-wagon,  and  tramway  is  supposed  to  have 
originally  been  a  road  for  coal-wagons.  It  is  also 
supposed  to  have  come  from  the  name  of  Mr. 
Outram,  who  was  connected  with  the  collieries  at  Newcastle,  so  tliat 
the  tram-roads  were  at  lirst  called  Outram  roads. 

'^  What  beautiful-looking  fiuit  !  "  cried  Florence,  at   sight  of  the 


THK    CRUISE    Ol'    A    LAND-YACHT. 


various  /'nifiros,  or  fruit-venders,  who  gathered  about  the  tram  witli 
oreat  basket-t'uls  poised  on  their  heads.  "  It  makes  my  mouth 
water  !  " 

"  Yes,  indeed,"  agreed  Harry.  "  I  mean  to  try  every  kind  of 
fruit  I  come  across  in  Mexico  !  " 

"  And  if  you  are  the  kind  of  boy  I've  always  taken  you  for," 
said  Eliot,  "  you  will  like  nearly  every  kind,  too  ;  —  particularly 
these  chirimoi/as"  he  added,  as  they  took  on  board  the  greater  part 
of  the  large  and  varied  stock  of  a  slender,  brown-skinned  and  gentle- 
voiced  youth  with  large  dark  eyes,  whom  Eliot  succeeded  in  beating 
down  in  his  prices  about  one-third.  "  Just  out  of  principle,"  he  said, 
"  for  these  people  would  not  know  what  to  make  of  it  if  you  did  not 
do  it ;  they  might  suspect  you  of  some  sinister  motive,  and  it  does 
not  pay  to  get  yourself  disliked !  But  this  youth  surprises  me  in 
selling  out  nearly  his  whole  stock  at  reduced  prices  !  T  think  he 
must  have  been  under  American  influence  !  The  eonnuon  peoi)le 
have  no  idea  of  tlie  principles  of  wholesale  trade.  If  you  want  to 
buy  things  in  quantity,  not  only  will  they  make  no  reduction,  but 
they  often  insist  on  charging  a  higher  rate,  because  it  puts  them  to 
so  much  more  trouble  !  " 

"Really,  such  unworldliness  is  delicious ! —  But  truly,  are  these 
chii-imoyas?  You  know  I  have  been  hearing  of  chirimoyas  from 
Eliot  for  the  past  six  years,"  said  Mabel,  "  and  I  have  despaired  of 
ever  seeing  one." 

"  Let  us  try  these  other  things  first,  and  save  the  chirimoyas  till 
the  last,"  Eliot  suggested.  "  This  mamej/  is  a  good  thing  to  begin 
with." 

Thev    all    gathered    around    the    big    basket  and    watched  Eliot 


128 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


vnth  curiosity  as  he  took  a  large  brown  fruit  %Wth  a  rough,  shell-like 
covering,  and  oval-shaped,  and  cut  it  lengthwise  into  several  slices, 
as  is  usually  done  with  a  melon.  It  disclosed  a  large,  chestnut- 
colored  pit  enclosed  by  a  melon-like  flesh  of  a  deep  salmon  color. 
Each  took  a  slice  and  tasted  it.  "  How  odd  !  "  said  Mabel,  critically. 
"  It  has  a  sort  of  cooked  taste." 

"  I  think  it's  real  nice  !  "  Florence  declared.  "  But  what  does  it 
taste  like  ?     Something  familiar,  and  I  can't  think  of  it  !  " 

"  Iveady-niade  pumpkin  pie  ;  that's  just  what  it  is !  "  shouted 
Harry. 

"  Harry  has  it !  It  does  have  a  strong  resemblance,  with  the 
addition  of  a  peculiarly  juicy,  fruity  sweetness,"  said  Mal)el. 

"  Now  next !  A  chico  zapote  apiece  will  be  in  ordei-,"  and  Eliot 
handed  around  a  kind  of  round  fruit  with  a  rough  brown  earth- 
colored  skin,  and  about  the  size  of  an  ordinary  peach.  "  They  look 
like  jjotatoes,"  Harry  remarked. 

"  These  are  especially  esteemed  in  INIexico,"  Eliot  explained. 
Chico  zapote  means  small  zapote.  There  are  numerous  kinds  of 
zapote,  and  we  have  two  more  on  our  list.  The  mamey  is  a  zapote, 
I  meant  to  tell  you."  Mabel  and  Florence  both  declared  the  chico 
zapote  delicious,  with  its  delicate  flavor  and  almost  sugary  sweet- 
ness, but  Harry  accepted  it  with  some  reserve.  "  I  like  it,"  he  said, 
"  all  except  its  coarse  grain,  like  a  cat's  tongue,  as  if  its  rough  skin 
had  struck  in.  tSonu^thing  like  some  of  our  coarse  jtcars,  you 
know." 

"  Now  for  a  zapote  jir'n  /n.  or  daik  zapote  !  "  ajid  Eliot  took  up  a 
soft,  rather  flabby-looking  fiuit  with  a  thin,  ibdl-green  skin.  He 
tore  it  open  and  the  interior  was  shown  to  be  a  dark,  soft  and  pasty- 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-VACHT.  129 

looking-  substance.  "  Why,  it's  rotten  !  "  vv'uhI  Ilarrv  ;  '■  you'll 
have  to  select  another  one,  altliough  they  all  look  ahoiit  tlie  same," 
and  Florence  declared  that  it  Avas  a  most  horrihlt-looking  thing. 

"  0  that's  all  right !  "  said  Eliot ;  "  that's  the  way  it  naturally 
looks  when  it  is  ripe  ;  you  must  try  everything,  you  know  !  " 

Harry  was  the  first  to  venture  it,  and  the  dark  streaks  that  it 
made  about  his  mouth  made  the  others  laugh  merrily.  "  You  re- 
mind me  of  a  small  child  that  has  been  trying  the  quality  of  his  nuid 
pies,"  Eliot  told  him.  "  A  spoon  Avould  be  better  to  eat  this  Avith," 
Eliot  suggested,  "  and,  indeed,  it  will  come  in  very  handily  for  some 
of  the  things  further  on."  Some  teaspoons  were  brought,  and  they 
all  declared  that  the  zapote  prieto  was  very  nice  after  all. 

••  We  had  "better  call  it  the  Singed-Cat  fruit,"  said  Harry,  "  for 
it  is  better  than  it  looks." 

"  It  is  really  a  very  refreshing  fruit,"  said  Eliot.  "And  it  is  a  very 
nice  dessert  dish,  fixed  up  with  vanilla  and  sugar,  and  jjerhaps  some 
spice  or  other.     It  also  makes  a  very  nice  water-ice." 

"  I  should  think  it  would  really  make  a  very  nice-looking  dish 
on  the  table,  and  resembles  chocolate  ice-cream  in  appearance,"  Mabel 
said. 

Next  ill  order  came  a  fruit  closely  resembling  the  mainey. 
'•  This  is  our  last  zapote  for  the  present  ;  it  is  a  zapote  borracho," 
and  a  slightly  mischievous  look  might  have  been  seen  coming  into 
Eliot's  eyes  as  he  said  the  words.  Its  interior  was  a  bright  yellow, 
instead  of  the  deep  salmon  of  the  mamey.  No  one  took  kindly  to 
this  fruit,  although  Harry  said  that  he  liked  it  when  he  first  tasted 
it,  but  then  he  changed  his  mind,  saying  it  was  too  mealy. 

"  Zapote   horracho  means  '  drunken    zapitte  ;  '   it  is  so  called   be- 


130  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    I.AKD-YACHT. 

cause  eating-  it  makes  a  person  intoxicated.  But  don't  be  fright- 
ened," Eliot  said  to  the  young  larlies,  laughing,  as  a  look  of  consterna- 
tion came  into  theii-  faces.  "  It  takes  two  or  three  to  produce  any 
effect,  and  you  have  only  eaten  a  mouthful.  Of  course  the  fruit 
does  not  contain  alcohol,  hut  some  kind  of  narcotic  ;  probably  opium, 
just  as  lettuce  does.  These  things  here  are  (jranaditas ;  you  can't 
helj)  liking  them,"  and  he  handed  around  some  fruit  about  the  size 
and  shape  of  eggs.  They  were  hard  and  shell-like,  something  like 
gourds,  and  they  had  a  beautiful  smooth  surface  of  rich  yellow,  with 
crunson  cheeks.  Cutting  off  the  end,  like  that  of  a  boiled  egg,  the 
interior  was  found  to  consist  of  a  mass  of  seeds  enveloped  in  soft 
pulp,  something  after  the  manner  of  a  gooseberry.  This  they  ate 
with  a  sjjoon.  It  liad  an  extpiisite  Havor.  as  was  unanimously 
agreed,  and  Eliot  told  them  they  might  eat  a  dozen  apiece,  if  they 
liked,  without  any  harm.  "  It  is  the  fruit  of  the  passion-flower,"  he 
said,  "  and  it  is  worth  remembering,  if  any  of  us  should  happen  to  be 
troubled  witli  a  cough  while  we  are  in  Mexico,  that  this  egg-shaped 
shell  (if  tlic  gianadita  makes  one  of  the  best  of  pectorals  if  steeped 
in  a  tujiFul  of  hot  water.  Now  we  must  be  ready  for  the  chiri- 
utoi/ds  !  "  and  Eliot  picked  out  a  large  fruit,  irregular  in  shape, 
"  about  the  size  of  a  base-ball,"  as  Harry  said,  dull  green  in  color, 
unil  coxcrcd  with  large  scale-marks,  something  like  an  alligator  skin. 
"  It  is  in  various  sizes,  you  see,"  said  Eliot,  taking  up  one  no  larger 
than  a  peacli,  and  jiointing  ouf  a  big  one  in  the  basket,  nearly  as 
large  as  a  <-«M()aniit.  He  cut  the  fruit  into  (juarters  and  handed  it 
round;  it  was  wliite.  soft,  and  very  juicy,  niucli  like  tlie  tlesli  of  a 
Bartlett  pear,  l)ut  wit li  just  the  trace  of  a  lilin.us  texture  from  the 
core   outwards,  as  in  a    pineajiple.      Endied.led   in  the   fruit  at  intei- 


THK    f'KUISl';    OF    A 


131 


vals  were  lai;<;e  tlailc  seeds  uhout  the  size  of  l)eeeh-inits.  Eliot 
reeoiiniieii(le(l  the  use  of  spoons  in  eating'  this. 

'•  Heavenly  !  "  caHed  Floienee.  "  But  what  is  it  like  !  Peach 
iee-ereani  with  the  coldness  taken  out  of  it,  I  shouhl  say  ;  and  1  can 
detect  stra wherry  flavor,  too  !  " 

"  It  is  perfectly  delicious,"  Mal)el  agreeih  "  But  it  seems  to  nie 
there  is  just  a  suggestion  of  hanana  al)out  it,  also  !  " 

"  And  pineapple,  too  !  "  added  Harry. 

"  Yes,  you  can  find  in  it  a  trace  of  any  fruit  you  like,"  said  Eliot. 
"  I  agree  with  the  definition  of  the  chirimoya  to  be  found  in  the 
Spanish  dictionary.  '  The  most  delicious  of  Anaerican  fruits,'  is  all 
it  says.     A  Peruvian  friend  told  me  they  had  this  saying  in  Lima : 

'  Hay  dos  cosas  en  la  vida 
que  nunca  se  olvida : 

la  felicidad 

y  la  chirimoya.' 

Which  means  :  '  There  are  two  things  in  life  that  are  ne\er  to  be 
forgotten  :  happiness,  and  the  chirimoya.'  We  boys  used  to  say  that 
there  is  only  one  fruit  that  is  finer  than  the  chirimoya,  and  that  is 
the  mango  ;  and  there  is  only  one  that  is  finer  than  the  mango,  and 
that  is  the  chirimoya  !  Perhaps  it  is  well  that  tlie  chirimoya  only 
comes  just  as  tlie  mango  goes,  for  it  would  l)e  difficult  to  make  a 
choice  between  them,  and  to  have  them  Ixtth  at  the  same  time  would 
be  an  embarrassment  of  ri<hcs." 

"But  I  thonght  you  agreed  with  the  Spanisli  definition,  and  that 
would  leave  you  no  choice  between  the  two  !  "  remarked  Florence. 

"  0  yes ;  there  is  a  good  loop-hole  there !  It  says  the  most 
delicious  Aiini-'icdii  fruit,  and  the  mango  is  not  native  to  America; 
it  is  an  importation  from   India,  or  China,  just  as  the  whole  citrous 


132  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

family  —  oranges,  lemons,  limes,  etc.,  were  introduced  from  the  Old 
World.  The  bananas  are  said  to  have  been  found  in  the  New 
World  at  the  time  of  discovery,  and  it  is  difficult  to  find  out  which 
continent  they  are  native  to.  As  they  are  seedless,  as  a  rule,  it 
shows  that  they  must  have  been  cultivated  for  ages  and  ages,  and 
they  must  have  been  taken  from  one  continent  to  the  other  by  the 
hand  of  man,  which  indicates  that  there  must  have  been  communica- 
tion between  the  Old  World  and  the  New  in  times  before  Columbus. 
But  all  the  fruit  we  have  just  eaten  is  purely  native  to  tropical 
America,  besides  which  there  are  the  pineapple  and  many  other  nice 
things.  So  the  aborigines  were  not  so  badly  off  as  the  wretched 
Australians,  for  Carl  Lumholtz  told  me  that  in  that  country  there 
was  hardly  an  edible  fruit.  Nearly  all  these  fruits  came  from  the 
Tierra  caliente,  the  hot  country  of  Mexico,  lower  down  than  this 
reo-ion  where  we  are,  which  is  called  the  Tierra  templada,  or  tempei- 
ate  country,  while  the  City  of  Mexico  is  so  high  as  to  be  in  what  is 
called  the  Tierra  fria,  or  cold  country.  This  last  term  we  should 
hardly  agree  with,  for  it  is  really  most  temperate.  But  the  method  of 
division  here  adopted  is  according  to  vegetation,  and  anything  above 
the   altitude    where   the   date-tree   does   not   ripen  its   fruit  is  called 

"  Is  there  any  good  fruit  peculiar  to  the  high  tal)le-laii(l  ?  "  askc.l 
Harry. 

"0  yes,  tliere  is  the  tuna,  or  prickly-pear,  which  grows  in  enor- 
mous (piantities,  but  it  does  not  begin  to  ri[)en  until  May  and  .lunc. 
There  are  several  kinds,  crinisoa  and  wliite.  and  they  an'  nice  and 
refreshing;  something  like  a  water-melon  in  tlavor.  15ut  woe  l)e 
unto    you    if   you    tackle    one    for   tiie    iirst  time    without    cxperi- 


THE    CHUISE    Ob'    A    LAND-YACHT.'  V.i'.i 

enoed  assistance,  for  thousands  of  little  prickles  will  <>et  into  your 
fingers  and  you  will  have  an  all-day  contract  <;-ettin<;-  them  out  !  " 

"  Here  is  one  more  native  American  fruit  of  the  tropics.  Init  we 
will  wait  luitil  supper  for  that.  It  is  the  <i(j/iiicti(c,  which  they  call 
the  '  allio-ator  pear,'  in  the  British  West  Indies.  But  it  has  no 
resemblance  to  either  an  alligator  or  a  pear,  and  they  gave  it  that 
name  because  some  ignorant  man  must  have  mistaken  the  word  for 
'  alligator  '  when  he  heard  the  Spaniards  pronounce  it.  Aguaccde.  is 
a  native  Aztec,  or  Nahuatl  word,  like  chocolate  and  tomato,  for  both 
of  which  we  are  indebted  to  Mexico.  The  original  of  tomato  is 
jitomate,  (pronounced  he-to-mah-tay).  You  can  recognize  a  Nahuatl 
word  in  the  termination  '  ate,'  originally  '  at/,'  which  is  one  of  the 
most  common  in  the  language.  The  aguacate  might  properly  be 
called  '  salad  fruit,'  for  it  makes  a  delicious  salad.  I  saw  Sam  buy- 
ing some  nice  fresh  tomatoes,  so  I  ^nll  hand  these  aguacates  over  to 
him  and  give  him  some  pointers  on  salad-making." 

As  the  train  departed  from  Lagos,  where  groups  of  tall,  full- 
foliaged  trees  made  pleasant  shade  beside  a  pretty  stream  near  the 
station,  Eliot  called  to  them  to  look  out  on  the  left.  ''  You  will  see 
a  sight  that  ^vill  show  you  that  the  good  folks  of  Lagos  are  not  such 
fools,  after  all.  Do  you  see  all  those  maguey  leaves  laid  out  close 
together  on  the  ground  in  that  lot  ?     Well,  that  is  an  ice-factory  !  " 

"  Why,  how  can  they  makv  ice  tliat  way  '.' "  asked  Harry.  "  I 
thought  they  had  to  have  ammonia,  and  long  coils  of  pipe,  and  a  lot 
of  machinery  to  make  artificial  ice." 

"  Well,  they  do  it  hi  a  much  simpler  way  here.  All  they  have 
to  do  is  to  pour  water  into  the  shallow  troughs  formed  by  those 
leaves  as  you  see  them  lying  there  ;   pour  it  in  at   nigiit.  and  in  the 


134  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

morning  yon  have  yonr  ice  !  And  that  too,  in  a  conntry  where  the 
temperature  never  falls  to  freezing-point !  " 

"  But  how  can  that  be  possible  ?" 

"  It  is  because  the  air  here  is  so  dry.  The  leaves  are  good  con- 
ductors of  heat,  and  the  dry  air  makes  evaporation  so  rapid  that  it 
quickly  deprives  the  water  of  its  heat  and  converts  it  into  ice.  In 
the  morning  they  collect  it  and  use  it  in  making  ice-cream  and  water- 
ices,  which  the  Mexicans  are  very  fond  of.  In  nearly  every  city  and 
town  you  will  see  men  going  around  the  streets  with  the  freezers  bal- 
anced on  their  heads  and  crying  out  '  Nieve  !  nieve  !  '  (pronounced 
nee-ay-vay)  which  is  Spanish  for  snow." 

They  sped  southward  through  the  broad  valleys  of  the  Bajio 
(pronounced  Bahe-o),  as  that  portion  of  the  table-land  is  called 
along  which  the  railway  passes  between  Lagos  and  Queretero  —  a 
depression,  the  word  means.  Its  altitude  is  in  the  neighborhood  of 
six  thousand  feet,  giving  it  a  mild  climate  of  perpetual  sunnuer, 
without  the  torrid  heats  of  lesser  elevations  in  the  tropics.  The  air 
was  delightfully  soft,  and  the  slanting  shadows  of  late  afternoon 
made  the  mountains  to  the  westward  grow  vague  and  dnsky,  while 
the  detail  of  the  seamed  and  rocky  flanks  of  the  ranges  to  the  east- 
ward Avere  brought  out  ruddily  in  sharp  relief.  Twilight  had  turned 
into  darkness  before  they  reached  the  large  city  of  Leon.  Sujipcr  was 
served  somewhat  later  than  usual,  after  they  had  left  Silao,  where 
there  was  a  large  crowd  at  the  station,  for  it  was  the  fasliion  there 
for  a  goodly  i)ortion  of  the  city  to  turn  out  to  see  the  trains  come  in 
at  evening. 

Eliot  gave  an  approving  smile  when  Sam's  dusky  face  appeared 
in  the  doorway  as  the  salad  was  brought  on  ;  fresh  sliced  tomatoes 


THE    OKUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  135 

mingled  with  the  yeHowish-oTeen  of  tlic  aonacatcs.  and  sHo-htly 
sprinkled  witli  ihopped  onions.  They  all  deelaied  it  tiu-  most 
delicious  salad  they  had  ever  tasted ;  the  aguacate  element  made  it 
perfect.  "  I  expect  in  the  hands  o£  a  culinary  genius  like  Sam  the 
aguacate  will  he  well  utilized  while  we  are  in  Mexico,"  said  Mr. 
Brinkley,  and  the  responsive  grin  of  the  cook  never  showed  a  broader 
expanse  of  gleaming  teeth. 

"  If  you  have  any  left,  just  send  them  in,"  said  Eliot.  '"'  Harry 
here,  athirst  for  information  and  experience,  wants  to  know  more 
about  the  aguacate.  You  see,"  he  continued,  as  the  fruit  was  placed 
before  him,  "  there  are  two  varieties  ;  these  large  ones  are  called 
paguas.  While  the  regular  aguacates  have  a  thin  skin  these  paguas 
have  a  rind  that  is  almost  like  a  shell.  But  there  is  no  material  dif- 
ference in  taste."  As  he  cut  it  open  a  large  pit  was  exposed,  about 
the  size  of  an  ordinary  hen's-egg.  "  Like  the  greater  proportion  of 
the  tropical  fruits  of  this  country,  it  runs  very  largely  to  seed. 
These  aguacate-pits  are  said  to  make  a  good  remedy  for  rheumatism. 
The  aguacate  is  sometimes  called  '  vegetable  butter,'  and  the  Mexi- 
cans often  spread  it  on  their  bread,  or  tortillas.  It  is  a  good  substi- 
tute, particularly  in  the  hot  country,  where  butter  is  almost  unknown. 
Just  try  it  !  " 

"  It  does  seem  scnnething  like  butter,  that  way,"  said  Mabel,  who 
had  declared  the  aguacate  by  itself  rather  insipid.  "  It  has  a  fresh 
buttery  flavor,  with  just  a  suggestion  of  spiciness." 

"  It  seems  curious  that  it  should  resemble  butter  so  when  it  is 
not  in  the  least  greasy,"  said  Florence. 

"  Mashed  up  and  put  into  consomme  it  makes  a  very  nice  thick 
soup,  and  there  are  various  other  ways  in  which  it  can  be  utilized," 
said  Eliot. 


136  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

The  train  slowed  up  while  they  were  still  at  the  tahle,  and  before 
it  came  to  a  stop  they  heard  a  confusion  of  cries  outside,  the  burden 
of  which  was  "  Fresas  !  fresas  ! "' 

"  Irapuato  !  "  said  Mr.  Brinkley,  "  the  town  of  perpetual  straw- 
berries." 

"  Yes,"  said  Eliot,  "  there  are  strawberries  to  be  had  here  at  the 
station  every  day  in  the  year." 

They  looked  out,  and  beside  the  train  were  a  score,  or  so,  of 
peasants,  men  and  women,  offering  baskets  of  fine,  large  strawberries, 
and  calling  "  Fresas !  Fresas  !  "  at  the  top  of  their  lungs.  Several 
baskets,  containing  something  like  two  tpiarts  each,  wei'e  bought  for 
two  reales,  or  a  peseta  (twenty-five  cents)  apiece,  and  one  was  placed 
on  the  table  before  them. 

"  That  is  why  I  ordered  supper  later  than  usual  tonight,"  said  Mr. 
Brinkley.  "  I  wanted  to  finish  off  with  strawberries.  I  prefer  to 
eat  them  just  as  they  are,  for  they  are  so  sweet  that  to  add  sugar 
to  them  seems  as  vain  as  the  gilding  of  refined  gold.  Strawberries 
are  sweetened  here  by  a  flood  of  unfailing  sunshine." 

"  These  were  made  to  be  eaten,  and  not  simply  sohl,  like  most 
of  our  '  market-strawberries '  at  home,"  said  Eliot. 

"  Aren't  they  good,  though  !  "  said  Harry.  "  What  a  country 
for  fruit !  " 


CHAPTER    XII. 


IN    THE    CITY    OF    THE    AZTECS. 


1 


\yAKE   up,  Harry!      We  sliaU 
J4    Eto,?v^  |jg  there  in  half  an  hour  !  " 


Harry    was    sleeping 

soundly,     and     Eliot     had 

'rVil  >K'-''  i)  "t     It-'       •  -  <>-iven    him    a    shake.       He 

M-»>  i/;':'..    '  ;  ■-"     iJ    If    ,-■■•'        opened    his     eyes    drowsily 

^^lyUllM       and  said  "Where?" 

"  Why,  in  the    City  of 

!,^c"?3,4.'?^;^'   '     '  ~  Mexico!" 

Harry  jumped  up,  alert 
with  excitement.  When  he  stepped  out  onto  the  "  quartei-deek  " 
with  his  cousin  he  exclaimed,  with  a  shiver,  "  Why,  it's  cold  !  " 

"  Yes,  we're  back  in  springtime  again,  as  I  told  you.  Summer 
or  winter,  the  mornings  are  cool  here." 

The  train  was  whirling  up  a  cloud  of  thick,  fine  dust,  and  they 
speedily  went  back  inside,  where  the  rest  of  the  party  soon  joined 
them.  It  was  just  growing  light.  They  were  traversing  a  wide, 
level  i)lain,  bordered  by  high  mountains.  Long  lines  of  trees, 
bordering  fields  and  highways,  and  fresh  with  the  light  green  leaf- 
age of  early  spring,  stretched  off  into  the  distance.  The  ground 
was  dry  and  brown,  except  where  there  were  patches  of  green  here 
and  there.      "  Spring  is  under  way,  now,  as  you  can  see  by  the  trees, 


138  THE    CRUISE    OF   A    LAND-YACHT. 

the  most  of  which  lose  their  leaves  in  December  and  strike  them  out 
again  towards  the  end  of  January,  at  this  altitude.  But  you  see, 
contrary  to  our  springtime  procedure,  the  trees  turn  green  before  the 
grass  does ;  months  before,  in  fact.  For  the  grass  will  not  spring 
up  green  until  the  rainy  season  sets  in ;  towards  the  end  of  May,  or 
early  in  June." 

'•'  This  does  look  as  if  we  were  getting  near  a  big  city,"  said 
Harry.  The  buildings  began  to  grow  thicker  on  either  side  ;  there 
were  factories,  and  new  streets  witJi  straggling  rows  of  houses  lately 
built,  or  just  going  up.  These  houses  were  mostly  of  one  story, 
with  plain  fronts,  and  windows  guarded  with  ii-on  gratings. 

"  Yes,  Mexico  is  one  of  the  great  cities  of  this  continent.  It  is 
nearly  as  large  as  Boston ;  Frank  Jersey  wrote  me  lately  that  it  had 
almost  four  hundred  thousand  inhabitants  now.  But  I  had  no  idea  it 
had  spread  way  out  here.  All  this  was  open  fields  six  years  ago. 
Mexico  is  growing  like  one  of  the  young  giant  cities  of  the  West." 

The  train  began  to  move  at  the  slow  pace  which  is  always  talcen 
in  the  approach  of  an  unportant  terminal,  as  if  in  sedate  respectful- 
ness to  a  large  population.  They  passed  by  railway  machine-shops 
and  storehouses,  with  long  lines  of  freight  and  passenger  cars,  loco- 
motives under  steam,  and  finally  came  to  a  stop  under  a  great  iron 
roof  supported  by  rows  of  handsome  stone  piers,  leaving  the  structure 
open  to  the  air  at  the  sides.  They  all  went  to  the  door  to  watch  the 
usual  sight  that  attends  the  arrival  of  a  train  at  its  destination,  and 
it  did  not  differ  materially  here  from  similar  scenes  in  the  United 
States.  "  I  wonder  if  anybody  will  be  here  to  meet  us  at  this  early 
hour,"  said  Eliot,  scanning  the  faces  in  the  crowd  of  people  waiting 
on  the  platform  and  looking  cx])ectantly  towards  the  cars.      "  Yes — 


THE    CllUlSE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  139 

here  come  Frank  Jersey  and  his  wife  —  and  who's  that  yonng-  Mexi- 
can with  them?  His  fact-  h)()ks  familiar,  Imt  I  can't  phice  him." 
Eliot  jumped  off  to  meet  his  friends,  who  hastened  towards  them. 
There  was  a  hearty  greeting,  with  a  clasping-  of  hands  ;  then  Harry 
perceived  a  look  of  recognition  come  over  Eliot's  face  as  his  eyes 
met  those  of  the  young  Mexican,  and  witii  astonishmemt  he  saw  the 
two  fall  across  each  others  shoulders  in  an  embrace,  giving  mutually 
and  sinniltaneously  three  or  four  affectionate  pats  on  the  back  with 
the  right  hand. 

"  That  is  the  way  friends  meet  in  Mexico,  after  an  absence,"  said 
Mr.  Brinklev.  "  Eliot  couldn't  do  it  better  were  he  to  the  manner 
born  !  " 

"  Pero  Nacho  !  Que  nino  tan  crecido  !  Quien  pudiera  recono- 
certe  !"  (But  Nacho  !  What  a  grown-up  boy  !  Who  could  have 
recognized  thee  !)  exclaimed  Eliot.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jersey  advanced  to 
greet  the  others.  They  were  old  friends  of  Eliot's  and  had  become 
intimate  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Brinkley  ■  on  their  previous  visit  to 
Mexico,  where  Mi:  Jersey  was  in  business.  Mrs.  Jersey  and  Mrs. 
Brinkley  kissed  each  other  first  on  one  cheek  and  then  on  the  other. 
"  Costmnbre  del  pais !  "  said  the  former,  with  a  laugh,  and  then, 
with  her  husband  she  was  made  acquainted  with  the  young  ladies 
and  Harry.  "  You  see  we  are  out  for  our  nu)rning  run  on  horse- 
back," said  Mrs.  Jersey.  "  Frank  and  I  make  it  a  point  to  ride  out 
regularly  every  morning,  and  it  keeps  us  in  s])lcn(lid  health,  even  in 
this  unhealthy  city." 

They  were  both  in  riding-suits ;  she  with  the  usual  ladies'  habit 
and  a  simple  jockey  cap,  while  her  husband  wore  a  short,  snug 
jacket,  dose-titting  trousers  spreading  out  over  th.e  feet,  and  a  broad- 


140 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


brimmed,  high-crowned  sombrero.      "  I  see  you  still   ride   Mexican 
style  !  "  said  Mr.  Brinkley. 

"  When  you  are  in  Rome,  you  know  !  "  said  Mr.  Jersey.  "  Be- 
sides, it  is  the  most  comfortable  way. 
But  for  charro,  just  look  at  our  friend 
young-  Andrade,  (pronounced  An-drah- 
thay)  who  came  along  with  us  this  morn- 
ing !  "  The  young  Mexican,  a  tall,  stal- 
wart, and  handsome  young  fellow  with 
large,  velvety  eyes,  was  dressed  in  a  suit 
cut  like  that  of  Mr.  Jersey's,  but  with  a 
double  row  of  silver  buttons  set  close  to- 
gether down  the  trousers-seams,  and  his 
sombrero  was  adorned  with  a  heavy  silver 
^^  band  and  a  deep  border  of  richly  em- 
broidered silver  work  around  the  brun. 

"  What  a  gorgeous  creature  !  "  whis- 
pered Florence  to  Mabel,  as  he  approached 
with  Eliot.  "  My  friend,  Seiiorito  Don 
Ignacio  Andrade,"  said  the  latter,  intro- 
ducing hun.  The  young  fellow  answered 
in  perfect  English,  with  hardly  the  trace  of  an  accent.  Remarking 
upon  it,  Mrs.  Brinkley  asked  hhn  where  he  had  attended  school  in 
the  United  States,  and  he  replied  that  he  had  never  yet  been  north, 
but  hoped  to  soon. 

"These  young  Mexicans  are  marvels  at  learning  Englisli."  said 
Eliot.  "  My  friend  Nacho  here  was  only  Harry's  age  when  I  saw 
him  last,  and  now  he  has  grown  into  the  young  giant  you  see  before 
you." 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  141 

"  You  must  join  us  at  breakfast,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley  to  his 
friends,  as  that  meal  was  announced  while  they  were  talkins^.  The 
invitation  was  accepted  and,  as  they  seated  themselves  at  the  table, 
Mr.  Jersey  said  to  Mr.  Brinkley  : 

"  I  received  your  telegram,  and  have  engaged  good  rooms  for 
you  all  at  the  Hotel  del  Jardin.  The  hotels  are  so  crowded  now 
it  was  a  mere  chance  that  I  got  them." 

"  We  are  in  luck,  then.  Although  it  might  lie  more  comfortable 
living  on  the  car,  I  decided  to  go  to  a  hotel  in  order  to  give  tlie 
young  jJeople  a  chance  to  see  what  it  is  like.  And  then  they  would 
be  nearer  the  centre  of  the  city." 

"  You  must  let  us  do  all  we  can  to  make  your  stay  pleasant," 
said  Mrs.  Jersey.  "  The  young  people  must  join  us  in  some  horse- 
back excursions  out  into  the  country.  How  would  tomorrow  morn- 
ing do  for  the  first  one  ?  Frank  will  see  that  good  horses  are 
engaged." 

This  was  agreed  u])on.  The  young  jNIexican  placed  his  own 
services  at  their  disposition  in  the  most  charming  manner,  and  said 
he  had  a  younger  brother  of  about  Harry's  age,  and  the  two,  he  was 
sure,  would  make  good  friends.  Harry  was  delighted  at  the  idea  of 
a  Mexican  boy  companion,  and  Mr.  Brinkley  begged  Don  Ignacio  to 
bring  his  brother  around  at  the  earliest  opportunity. 

By  ten  o'clock  they  were  ready  to  go  to  the  hotel.  Their 
friends,  who  had  left  them  shortly  after  breakfast,  had  ordered 
carriages  for  them.  How  fascinatingly  novel  did  everything  appear 
to  the  eyes  of  the  young  people,  wlio  were  now  passing  for  the 
first  time  through  the  streets  of  a  Mexican  city.  At  such  a  time 
everv  detail    that  diil'ers    from  those    of    the   scenes    one    has   lieen 


142  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

accustomed  to  makes  a  vivid  impression,  and  even  to  the  three  who 
renewed  their  acquaintance  with  familiar  sights,  it  had  the  effect  of 
novelty. 

"  There  seems  to  he  a  magical  influence  in  the  air  of  this  place," 
said  Mrs.  Brinkley,  "  and  it  always  gives  me  the  sensation  of  taking- 
part  in  a  stage-spectacle."  And  indeed,  one's  first  impressions  of 
the  historic  city,  the  oldest  capital  in  the  New  World,  are  apt  to  be 
of  a  theatrical  order.  It  all  looks  so  strange,  so  different  from  what 
has  been  experienced. 

"  For  all  I've  read  about  it,  and  for  all  the  photographs  I've 
seen,  I  had  no  idea  it  was  anything  like  this,"  said  Mabel.  "  Now 
with  London  it  was  quite  different.  At  the  start,  it  seemed  as  if  I 
had  always  known  it,  and  was  returning  to  a  place  where  I  had  once 
lived.     I  seemed  to  recognize  nearly  everything  I  saw  there." 

The  sun,  pouring  down  its  dazzling  light  from  a  cloudless  sky  of 
deep  blue,  seemed  as  high  up  from  the  southern  horizon,  even 
though  so  early  in  the  year,  as  it  was  in  midsunnner  in  the 
home-latitude.  The  streets  Avere  straight,  and  broad  at  first,  but 
narrower  as  they  approached  the  centre.  The  buildings  were  mostly 
two  and  three  stories  in  height,  some  were  plain  and  the  stone  fronts 
of  others  were  elaborately  I'arved,  and  others  still  were  covered  with 
stucco,  moidded  or  stamped  into  intricate  aral)es(jue  ])atterns.  All 
the  Avindows  Avere  very  large,  and  ojjcned  like  doors  upon  iron-railed 
balconies  where  women  leaned  by  the  hour  looking  out  over  the 
busv  life  of  the  street.  On  all  sides  were  stately  cliurcli-towers  and 
bcautifid  glittering  domes  covered  with  glazed  tili'.  In  tlie  streets 
were  motley  crowds.  There  were  many  stylishly  (hcssed  jieople 
passing  to  and    fro,   mostly    with   dark   foreign    faces.      Ladies   were 


DOORWAY   IN   MEXICO. 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


145 


frequently  seen  without  hats,  their  heads  gracefully  draped  with 
mantillas  of  black  lace.  Many  horsemen  were  met,  dressed  for  the 
greater  part  in  the  style  of  then-  friend  Andrade,  their  horses  step- 
ping- lightly  and  decked  with  an  abundance  of  stamped  leather-work, 
rich  with  silver  decoration,  and  bright-hued  zarapes  rolled  across  the 
saddles  behind  them.  Multitudes  of  humble-looking  people  were  in 
the  streets,  mostly  with  Indian  features,  and  dressed  in  thin  gar- 
ments of  cotton,  usually  very  dirty  and  often  very  ragged.  Many 
of  these  men  were  running  along  at  a  steady  dog-trot,  bending  over 
with  heavy  burdens  carried  on  their  shoulders,  such  as  great  cases  of 
goods  and  large  trunks.  In  many  cases,  straps  across  their  fore- 
heads helped  sustain  these  loads.  Others  trotted  by  on  their  way  to 
market,  with  loads  of  vegetables  and  fruits,  and  some  of  these  carried 
great  cages  of  wicker-work  crowded  with  live  poultry,  while  outside 
there  dangled  bunches  of  live  fowl  with  legs  tied  together  and  heads 
down,  resignedly  bearing  what  must  be  torture.  Herds  of  shaggy 
burros  trudged  patiently  in  from  the  country  laden  with  jnoduce 
packed  upon  their  backs,  and  other  herds  carried  charcoal  and  build- 
ing-stone. On  the  corners  stood  slender  and  youthful-looking  police- 
men, in  neat,  military-looking  uniforms  of  dark  blue,  and  amiable 
faces,  (juitc  in  contrast  with  the  burly  guardians  of  the  peace  at 
home.  A  battalif)n  of  troops  passed  rapidly  by  with  a  great  clatter 
of  drums  and  shrill  music  of  bugles  ;  the  soldiers  short  and  slouchy- 
looking,  and  proceeding  at  a  quickstep. 

They  passed  by  a  grand  equestrian  statue  standing  in  a  broad 
cii-cidar  space  whence  there  radiated  wide,  straight  avenues,  one  of 
them  lined  with  tall  trees.  They  rolled  from  the  rumbling,  rough 
cobble-stone  pavement  onto  a  smooth  expanse  of  asphalt,  and   the 


146 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


transition  made  Hairy  think  of  the  sensa- 
tion of  crossing  a  bar  from  the  tossing-  seas 
of  the  ocean  to  the  smooth  waters  of  a 
harbor.  They  jjassed  a  long,  park-like 
pnblic  pleasure-gronnd,  which  Eliot  said 
was  the  Alameda  —  a  name  commonly 
designating  a  pnblic  garden,  and  coming 
from  tlie  word  alamo,  or  poplar,  with 
which  tree  it  was  customary,  at  first,  to 
shade  snch  places.  The  alamos  and  ash- 
trees  here  were  bright  with  fresh  yonng 
foliage,  and  they  caught  long  v-istas  along 
the  shady  alleys  that  crossed  the  place. 
Nearly    every 

^71 


open  space  they  passed  was  utilized  by  a 
little  city  garden,  with  bits  of  fresh  green 
lawn,  fountains,  and  bright  Avith  flowers, 
wliile  tall,  broad-leaved  bananas,  young- 
date-palms,  and  fantastic  cactus  growths 
gave  an  intensely  foreign  aspect.  The  ^^Sc 
churches  and  the  great  buildings  that 
were  formerly  convents,  together  with 
many  other  old  and  massive  structures 
that  had  been  standing  for  one,  two,  and 
three  centuries,  were  stained  Avith  hues 
and  tints  that  had  from  time  to  time  been 
applied  in  successive  coatings,  making  an 
indescribable  intermingling  of  colors  that, 


,ANl>-YAfUT. 


147 


uiuler  the  intense  .snnliglit,  li;i(l  the  charm  of  variegated  tapestry. 
Often,  as  they  quickly  passed  a  huikling  they  woukl  catch  momentary 
glimpses  of  a  sunny  inner  court,  surrounded  by  arcaded  galleries 
,  of  carved  stone-work,  with  ilowerin<>-  plants  in  pots  or  great  terra- 
cotta jars,  along  the  balustrades.  Everything  seemed  to  be  kiugh- 
ing  with  blossoms  and  sunshine. 

They  finally  drew  uj)  at  their 
hotel,  a  massive  structure  of  two 
stories  built  along  two  sides  of  a 
large  garden  that,  on  the  side  where 
they  entered,  was  separated  from  the 
street  by  a  high  wall.  They  passed 
along  a  broad  stone  platform  where 
clusters  of  guests,  evidently  Ameri- 
cans for  the  greater  part,  were  loung- 
ing and  chatting.  In  the  angle  of 
the  two  wings  they  went  up  a  stair- 
way to  a  corridor  along  the  outside 
of  the  second  story,  to  their  rooms, 
which  they  found  consisting  of 
apartments  of  two,  overlooking  the 
street  on  one  side  and  the  garden  on  the  other.  They  were  com- 
fortably furnished,  and  Eliot  pointed  out  that  they  would  have  the 
benefit  of  the  sunshine  all  day  ;  a  most  desirable  thing  in  the  City 
of  Mexico,  where  the  thin  air  made  it  chilly  and  unhealthy  in  rooms 
where  no  sunlight  entered.  "  This  hotel  is  one  of  our  great  im- 
provements since  you  were  here,  Eliot,"  said  Mr.  Jersey,  who  was 
on  hand  at  the  hotel  when  thev  arrived.      "  But  it  is  not  so  larjre 


148 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


as  it  looks,  and  they  are  going  to  double  or  treble  its  size,  they  say, 
with  new  wings  and  an  additional  story.  And  then  we  shall  still 
need  a  hotel  of  several  hundred  rooms  to  accommodate  the  travel 
coming  this  way.  You  must  remember  this  place,  Eliot  ?  How  it 
would  make  the  old  Franciscan  fathers  stare  to  see  the  change  !  " 

"  0  yes  ;  this  is  the  old  garden  of  San  Francisco."  And  he  ex- 
plained to  the  others  how  the  building  was  remodeled  from  a  jjortion 
of  the  old  Franciscan  convent,  one  of  the  largest  in  the  country,  and 
covering  many  acres  in  the  heart  of  the  city.  When  the  property 
was  confiscated  by  the  government,  streets  were  cut  through  it  and 
it  was  broken  up  into  lots. 

"  If  the  young  ladies  would  like,  we  will  run  up  onto  the  roof 
XV  and  I   will  show   you  some- 

thing    curious,"     said    Mr. 
Jersey. 
tP,     "■».;-" ''M!i         ||L--^'iili  "That  is  a  good 

idea  ;     when     one 
comes     into    a    new 
)lace,    get    a    bird's- 
ye     view    of    it    at 
the    start,    if 
possible,   and   it 
•  orientating  '  one's 
learning     '  bow     to 
steer  your  course','  as  our  young 
yachtsman   berc  would  put  it,"   said  Mr.  Brinkley. 

From  the  Hat,  tilo-pavcd  roof  of  tlie  hotel  they  looked  off  over 
The  level  expanse  ol    I 


Ihe  city. 


ildi 


■lie 


(1   b 


THE    CKUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


149 


domes  and  towel's  in  great  variety  ;  island-like  chimps  of  trees  rose 
from  plaza  gardens  here  and  there,  and  all  around  the  valley  there 
towered  high  mountains.  But  almost  the  first  to  attract  their  eyes, 
and  enchain  them  in  silent  admiration,  was  the  glorious  spectacle 
that  presented  itself  off  towards  the  southeastward,  —  the  two  great 
snowy  summits  of  Popocatepetl  and  Ixtaccihuatl,  "  The  Smoking 
Mountain  "  and  the  "  White  Woman,"  as  the  names  given  them  by 
the  Aztecs  signified.  Their  forms  contrasted  strongly  ;  the  fonner 
stood  isolated  in  a  tall,  symmetrical  cone ;  the  latter  spread  out  rug- 
ged and  Alpine-like,  its  irregular  contour  showing  at  once  whence 
came  its  name,  for  it  resembled  the  shape  of  a  woman  lying  at  fidl 
length  and  shrouded  in  white.  The  effect  of  the  dazzHng  snow 
mantles  was  singularly  pure  and  gleaming  in  the  transparent  air  and 
against  the  clear  sky.  The  grand  summits  seemed  as  aerial  as 
clouds,  and  were  whiter  than  any  clouds  in  their  crystalline  splendor. 

"  You  pronounce  their  names,  Mr.  Jersey,  somewhat  differently 
from  what  I  have  heard  before,"  said  Mabel.  "  It  is  difiicidt,  at  the 
best,  to  adjust  the  tongue  to  all  those  syllables,  and  any  change 
quite  upsets  one's  ideas." 

"  I  was  givmg  them  the  original  Naiuiatl  pronunciation  that  you 
•will  hear  out  in  the  country  aU  through  the  valley :  Popocatepetl 
and  Ixtaccihuatl ;  accented  on  the  second  and  fourth  syllables  of  the 
former,  and  third  of  the  latter.  But  here  in  the  city  the  Spanish 
influence  has  changed  the  accents,  so  that  the  last  syllables  are  ac- 
cented instead,  and  the  pronunciation  is  commonly :  Popocatepetl 
and  Ixtaccihuatl." 

"Domes  everywhere,"  said  Harry,  looking  out  over  the  city. 
"  Even  this  hotel  has  one.      How  (jueer  !  " 


150  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

"  That  is  just  what  I  meant  when  I  said  that  I  would  show  you 
something-  curious,"  said  Mr.  Jersey.  "  When  this  building  was  a 
part  of  the  old  Franciscan  monastery  the  corner  there  was  one  of 
the  chapels,  and  when  the  structure  Avas  remodeled  into  a  hotel 
they  let  the  dome  stand,  probably  for  architectiu-al  effect,  which  is 
certainly  very  good  from  the  street." 

"  It  is  really  a  beautifid  dome.  And  the  effect  of  that  pattern 
of  large  yellow  ornamentation  on  a  ground  of  dark  blue  is  rich.  It 
is  a  pity  they  are  letting  some  of  the  tiles  drop  out.  But  there  is  a 
common  stovepipe  thrust  out  at  an  angle  through  the  side  of  the 
cupola,  and  smoking  black  smoke  !     What  can  that  be  for?  " 

"  The  kitchen  for  the  hotel  restaurant  has  been  established  in 
the  dome,  and  they  have  in  it  the  uncommon  feature  of  a  modern 
American  range  that  burns  coal,  in  place  of  the  universal  charcoal 
that  requires  no  chimney,  as  you  will  see  on  looking  over  the  roofs 
around  here.  And  charcoal  is  really  the  thing  for  this  place.  A 
few  American  families  here  have  tried  ranges,  but  they  find  that  they 
heat  up  terribly,  and  it  gives  the  cooks  pneumonia  when  they  go  out 
into  the  thin,  cool  air.  There  is  a  good  reason  for  the  most  of  these 
Mexican  customs  that  strike  us  so  behind  the  tunes  at  first  thought." 

After  dinner  Eliot  took  Harry  out  for  a  stroll  while  the  ladies 
took  a  ciirriage  to  do  some  shopping  and  Mr.  Brinkley  was  occupied 
with  sonic  business  matters.  They  dropped  in  to  see  Mr.  Jersey  and 
he  joined  them,  saying  that  after  so  long  an  absence  Eliot  would 
need  a  pilot  as  well  as  Harry.  '•'  And  1  want  to  have  the  i)leasure 
of  seemg  how   the  cliangcs  strike  you,""  lie  added. 

"How  is  it  1  Ueei)  bumiiing  into  people  as  I  pass  ?"  asked 
Harry,  after  a  wliile. 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  151 

His  companions  laughed.  "  I  ought  to  have  told  you,"  said 
Eliot,  "  that  here  it  is  the  custom,  not  only  for  teams  in  the  street  to 
turn  to  the  left  when  they  meet,  as  they  do  in  England  and  Canada, 
but  for  people  also  on  the  sidewalks." 

"  They  have  a  way  of  doing  some  things  (juite  different  from 
our  way,"  said  Mr.  Jersey.  "  One  custom  is  just  as  reversed  as  that 
of  the  Turks  who  shake  their  heads  for  yes,  and  nod  for  no.  There! 
See  that  man  beckon  to  somebody  across  the  street  ?  He  is  simply 
giving  him  a  passing  salutation.  If  he  wanted  him  to  come  across 
to  where  he  is,  he  would  wave  his  hand  away  from  him,  like  this, 
which  we  at  home  woidd  take  to  mean,  '  Go  away  !  '  " 

"  There's  a  man  standmg  in  a  window  and  clapping  his  hands. 
What  does  he  mean  by  that  ?  " 

"  Oh  !  "  said  Eliot,  "  he's  calling  a  carriage  from  the  hack-stand 
over  on  that  corner.  It  is  a  '  handy  '  custom  indeed,  for  the  noise 
is  very  penetrating  and  qiuckly  attracts  attention.  It  is  curious  that 
here  in  America  there  should  be  a  custom  '  handed  down,'  so  to 
speak,  from  the  distant  Orient,  coming  from  the  Arabs  through  the 
Moors  to  Spain,  and  brought  by  the  Spaniards  to  Mexico.  They 
clap  the  hands  for  a  waiter  in  a  restaui-ant,  a  servant  in  a  house,  or 
for  anything  else  of  the  kind.  With  us  we  either  have  to  yell, 
or  whistle,  or  sit  still  and  wait." 

"  These  stores  seem  to  be  as  good  as  you  will  s(>e  anywhere," 
said  Harry.  "■  Great  jdate-glass  windows,  and  nic(>-looking  goods 
displayed  in  them." 

'•  And  don't  fail  to  take  note  of  the  number  of  book-stores,"  said 
Eliot.  ''  It  seems  as  if  there  must  be  as  many  as  there  are  in  Boston. 
Charles  Dudley  Warner  said  that  the  book-stores  of  a  city  were  a 


152  THE    CRUISE    OF   A    LAND-YACHT. 

gauge  of  the  intelligence  of  its  inhabitants.  So  Mexico  must  have  a 
large  reading  public.  Frank,  I'm  impressed  with  one  thing,  and 
that  is  how  stirring  and  bustling  the  city  has  grown.  There  are 
bigger,  metropolitan-looking  crowds  in  the  streets,  and  they  hurry 
around  as  in  an  American  city.  And  these  handsome  new  buildings 
going  up  everywhere  !  These  sidewalks,  too,  along  here,  so  smooth 
and  easy  to  the  feet ;  such  a  change  from  the  uneven  old  stones. 
And  those  level  wooden  pavements." 

"  There  are  several  mUes  of  those,  but  wood  doesn't  do  weU  for 
pavement  in  this  climate.  We  shall  soon  have  one  hundred  and 
fifty  kilometers  of  asphalt  blocks,  though." 

"  Then  Mexico  will  be  a  cleaner  and  better  paved  city  than  either 
New  York  or  Boston." 

"  Hello,  there  are  two  leaning  towers  !  "  exclaimed  Harry. 

"  If  you  should  see  any  that  do  not  lean  it  would  be  more  of  a 
curiosity  in  this  city  !  "  said  Mr.  Jersey.  "  Those  two  towers  belong 
to  the  church  of  La  Profesa,  and  are  good  samples.  Now  look  back 
to  that  corner  at  that  handsome,  richly  carved  building.  That  is 
the  Biblioteca  Nacional,  the  National  Library,  and  the  fence  in  front 
looks  as  if  it  were  running  down  hill.  But  you  will  see  that  the 
building  itself  is  lurching  over  like  a  ship  at  sea  under  a  strong  side 
wind.  And  see  the  line  of  the  Portales,  that  long  block  with  the 
arcades,  ahead,  sagging  like  a  buckboard  under  the  weight  of  two 
fat  men  !  " 

"  What's  the  reason  ?     Earthquakes  ?  " 

"  No,  tliough  it  looks  like  an  arrested  earthquake.  It  is  because 
this  city,  with  tliese  enormously  heavy-walled  bnildings,  is  built  on  a 
marshy  foundation,  and  the  settling  lias  been  uneven." 


THE  CKUISE  OF  A  LAND-YACHT.  ]53 

They  walked  alono-  tlirougli  the  (iiiaint  old  arcades,  or  i)ortals, 
where  the  sidewalks  ran  under  the  first  story  of  the  huildings,  a 
feature  common  to  most  Spanish  and  Spanish-American  c-ities.  At 
the  central  plaza,  the  Plaza  de  Armas,  Harry  recognized  at  once  the 
great  cathedral,  from  the  many  pictures  he  had  seen.  It  is  the  largest 
church-building  in  America,  and,  with  its  annex,  the  Sagrario,  or 
parochial  church,  fills  one  entii'e  side  of  the  great  square,  with  a 
beautiful  garden  surrounding  three  sides  of  the  edifice.  In  one  part 
of  the  garden  was  a  heap  of  ancient  building-fragments ;  grotesquely 
carved  stones,  including  representations  of  serpents,  toads,  and  fan- 
tastic idols,  —  remains  of  the  great  teocali,  or  Aztec  pyramid  temple, 
that  occupied  the  site  of  the  cathedral.  "  All  through  the  valley 
the  ground  is  full  of  Aztec  relics,"  said  Eliot. 

In  the  Zocolo,  or  central  garden  of  the  plaza,  a  fine  military 
band  was  playing,  as  is  the  custom  on  every  afternoon,  and  they 
stopped  a  while  to  listen.  "  Somehow  the  Zocolo  has  a  changed 
look  —  Why,  they  have  cut  down  the  great  eucaly])tus  trees  !  "  ex- 
claimed Eliot. 

"  Yes,  they  said  the  trees  took  all  the  nutriment  out  of  the  soil  so 
that  nothing  else  Avould  grow." 

"  It  is  too  bad  !  Why,  when  Mr.  Charles  A.  Dana,  who  is  one 
of  the  best  students  of  trees  in  America,  was  here  in  1884,  he  would 
not  believe,  at  first,  that  they  were  only  sixteen  years  old.  They 
were  nearly  as  high  as  the  cathedral  towers,  and  enonnously  thick ; 
something  over  three  feet,  I  should  say." 

"  The  wood  seemed  nearly  as  hard  as  boxwood,"  said  Mr.  Jersey. 
*'  Those  in  the  Plaza  de  San  Fernando  are  almost  as  large,  now." 

"  Here  is  a  proof,  Harry,  that  the  Mexicans  are  progressive  and 


154  r  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

are  quick  to  take  up  new  ideas,"  said  Eliot.  "  When  Maximilian 
became  emperor  of  Mexico  this  Plaza  de  Armas  was  an  empty  ex- 
panse of  stone  pavement,  and  it  was  the  same  with  the  plazas  in 
every  town  throughout  the  country.  The  Empress  Carlota  thought 
it  would  he  a  pleasant  feature  to  convert  the  centre  of  this  plaza 
into  a  garden,  and  so  this  Zocolo  was  created.  The  Mexicans  are  so 
fond  of  flowers,  trees,  and  such  things  that  the  idea  became  very 
popular,  and  the  example  here  set  found  imitation  everywhere.  So 
now  it  is  very  rarely  that  a  city,  large  or  small,  can  be  found  any- 
where in  the  country,  whose  central  plaza  is  not  occupied  by  a 
beautiful  garden,  carefully  tended  and  full  of  flowers.  The  people 
take  great  pride  in  giving  their  cities  an  attractive  appearance.  But 
it  seems  remarkable  in  a  country  where  until  within  a  very  few 
years  the  cities  have  been  isolated,  with  communication  difficult  and 
infrequent,  that  such  an  idea  should  have  spread  so  rapidly.  You  will 
find  very  few  cities  in  our  own  country  that  take  any  pains  in  this 
respect.  Even  some  of  the  largest  cities,  places  of  over  one  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants,  have  not  so  much  as  a  square  foot  of  green- 
sward in  any  public  place." 

They  strolled  through  several  of  the  interior  courts  of  the  palace, 
as  the  great  building  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  plaza,  occupied  by 
the  \;ui<)us  departments  of  the  national  government,  is  called,  and 
o-aincd  some  idea  of  its  enormous  expanse,  for  it  is  said  to  cover 
more  ground  than  any  other  building  in  America.  They  hxdced 
through  the  lol'ty  interior  ol'  the  eathedral.  with  its  elaliorate  altars 
and  costly  decorations,  and  then  they  went  nortlnvani  a  sliort  dis- 
tance through  an  aneient-looUing.  busy  street  to  the  I'laza  de  Santo 
Domin<>(),  wliere  thev  saw  the  old  building,  now  the  National  School 


THE    CUUISK    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


155 


of  Medicine,  that  formerly  was  the  Inquisition,  and  before  which, 
during  the  occupation  of  Mexico  under  the  Empire,  the  French  used 
to  stand  their  prisoners  and  slioot  tlicm  —  condemned  to  death  on 
the  slightest  pretexts  and  usually  on  no  proof  whatever.  The  sole 
motive  of  the  cruel  Marshal  Bazaine  in  ordering  these  butcheries  of 
many  hundreds  of  innocent  Mexicans  was  that  of  making  the  popu- 
lation orderly  through  fear. 

"  How  the  t)ld  life  and  the  modern  are  brought  together  hero  in 
this  city  !  "  said  Mr.  Brinkley,  as  the  party  stood  on  the  corridor 
balcony  that  evening,  watching  the  dusk  darken  into  night  under 
the  noble  fresnos  of  the  garden,  while  the  incandescent  electric 
lights  glittered  all  around  and  cast  a  mellow  radiance  over  the  lively 
coming  and  going,  and  the  animated  groups  of  the  hotel  sitting  and 
standing  around  in  the  open  air.  "  Here  we  have  an  old  convent 
transformed  and  made  comfortable  by  the  magic  of  nineteenth  cent- 
ury invention.  The  life  of  the  great  toiling  mass  is  that  of  the  mul- 
titude in  feudal  times,  while  that  of  the  upper  classes  is  as  advanced, 
in  all  externals,  as  will  be  found  anywhere.  It  is  the  jjoverty,  the 
degradation  of  the  common  people,  that  holds  Mexico  back ;  that 
makes  the  civilized  minority,  as  in  Russia,  depend  upon  a  desjiotism 
for  the  maintainence  of  its  power  and  privileges.  The  thing  is,  to 
make  the  intellectual  and  material  advantages  of  the  few  the  posses- 
sion of  the  many.  Universal  education  will  solve  the  cpiestion  here 
and  elsewhere,  and  free  the  country  from  the  curse  of  inequality  of 
opportunity  that  is  as  dangerous  to  the  upjjcr  classes  as  it  is  oppres- 
sive to  the  lower." 


CHAPTER    XIII. 


RIDING    HORSEBACK    IN    THE    SUBURBS    OF    MEXICO. 


H 


[ARRY   had  never   Leeii    on 
liorsebaek,  and  it  was  with 
something  of   a   sailor's  trepi- 
dation that  he  jn'epared  for  the 
^r     ^  ride   tliat   had   been  arranged 

^f    -^{jL^tlTs^^^J^f^  for  the  next  morning.     He  was 

"^  '  ■"  not  a  stranger  to  tlie  saddle, 

^-  ^  ho\ve\ei,  for  he  was  an  enthusiastic 
wheelman  and  his  bicycle  had  carried 
him  for  hundreds  of  miles  over  the 
smooth  ways  of  the  jmrks  and  the  fine  suburban  roads  around 
Boston.  But  he  found  the  keen  enjoyment  of  anticipation  in  look- 
ing forward  to  a  new  and  untried  pleasure.  '•  You  will  find  no 
trouble,"  Eliot  assured  him.  "  A  good  Mexican  saddle  is  as  easy 
as  an  ai-mchair." 

They  had  both  bought  the  regulation  Mexican  sombreros  the  day 
before,  and  Eliot  had  brought  his  old  ISIexican  riding-suit  back  with 
him.  Seeing  this,  Harry  declared  tliat  he  was  going  to  onlcr  a 
charro  suit  at  once ;  it  would  be  fun  to  dress  up  in  it  at  hoiue. 
They  found  the  horses  in  Avaiting  for  them  in  front  of  the  hotel,  in 
charge  of  a  man  from  the  stable.  Mabel  and  Florence  made  their 
appearance  on  the  balcony,  in  their  riding-habits,  and  tlicy  spied  Mr. 
'56 


THE  CUUISE  OF  A  LAND-YACHT.  157 

and  Mrs.  Jersey  coming-  clown  the  street  with  Nacho  Andrade  and 
another  young  man  with  him. 

"  How  deHghtfully  picturesque  these  young-  Mexicans  look  on 
horseback,"  said  Mabel.  "  They  sit  like  statues,  and  their  stirrups 
are  so  placed  that  there  is  almost  a  perpendicular  line  from  their 
shoulders  to  their  feet." 

"  I  wonder  who  that  is  with  our  Mexican  friend,"  said  Florence, 
as  thev  drew  near.  "  He  must  be  an  American  boy,  I  should  say,  in 
spite  of  his  Mexican  costume." 

As  everything-  was  all  ready,  the  young  ladies  went  down  and 
found  Don  Ignacio  presenting  his  brother  Pablo  to  Harry.  "  Your 
brother ! "  exclaimed  Mabel,  "  how  can  that  be  possible,  Senor 
Audrade?     Surely  he  must  be  an  American  !  " 

"  Indeed,  Miss  Sampson,  he  is  really  my  brother,"  said  the  dark- 
eyed  young-  fellow  with  a  sincere  smile.  "  But  he  is  a  Goth  and  I 
am  an  Iberian,  you  see,  for  in  our  Spanish  blood  many  races  are 
joined." 

Pablo  Andrade  was  a  slender  youth  of  about  Harry's  height, 
with  frank  eyes  of  clear  blue,  light  brown  hair,  and  a  fair  face  with 
fresh  rosy  cheeks.  No  one  of  the  party,  not  even  the  blonde  Eliot, 
was  so  Northern-looking  in  feature.  In  view  of  this,  it  seemed  odd 
to  hear  the  broken  English,  and  note  the  gentle,  gracious  shyness 
with  which  he  met  Harry's  hearty  American  informality  of  boyish 
friendliness.  But  their  mutual  glances  expressed  a  genuine  liking, 
and  the  two  boys  were  evidently  destined  to  become  good  friends. 

''  We  are  so  accustomed  to  think  of  the  Sjjanish  as  a  Latin  people 
that  we  forget  the  strong  Northern  element  in  theii-  composition," 
said  Mabel. 


158  THE  CRUISE  OF  A  LAND-YACHT. 

"  Yes,  the  Visigoths  were  as  Northern  in  character  as  the  Saxons 
or  Skandinavians,  and  you  can  find  then-  type,  just  as  distinct  as  in 
Pablo  here,  all  through  Mexico  as  well  as  Spain." 

"  Do  you  know,"  said  Mr.  Jersey,  "  that  the  word  bigot  comes 
from  Spain,  and  was  derived  from  Visigoth  ?  For  the  Visigotliic  por- 
tion of  Spain  had  the  rejiutation  of  having  that  hard,  stern  religious 
temperament  that  is  expressed  in  the  word.  The  Visigoths  left  a  deep 
impression  on  the  race,  language,  and  institutions  of  the  land  they 
conquered,  but  with  whose  people  they  became  assimilated." 

"  And  the  Spanish  word  for  moustache,  bigofe,  also  came  from 
Visigoth,"  said  Eliot,  "  showing  that  the  wearing  of  the  moustache 
was  a  Gothic  fashion." 

By  this  time  they  were  all  mounted  and  they  started  in  a  lively 
cavalcade.  "  How  small  these  Mexican  horses  are  !  "  remarked 
Florence. 

"  Yes,  and  when  you  get  back  across  the  border  you  will  say, 
'  What  great  lanky  things  these  American  horses  are,'  "  said  Eliot. 
"  These  Mexican  horses  belong  to  the  most  beautifid  and  intelligent 
breed  in  the  world,  —  the  Arabian,  brought  to  Spain  by  the  ISIoors, 
and  to  Mexico  by  the  Spanish  conquerors." 

"  I  notice  one  peculiarity  here,  already,"  said  Harry,  "  the  horses 
in  Mexico  all  have  tails  !  " 

Pablo,  who  was  riding  by  Harry's  side,  looked  at  him  question- 
ingly,  as  if  doubtful  that  he  had  heard  aright,  and  asked  if  it  could 
be  that  the  horses  in  the  United  States  of  the  North  Avere  of  a  tail- 
less kind. 

"  Artificially  so  !  "  said  EHot,  laughing.  ''  There  is  a  s|iccii's  of 
American  called  the  Ani-'loiiianiac,  and   thcv  have  set   tlic  tasliioii  of 


THE    CRUISE    OF   A    LAND-YACHT.  159 

docking  their  horses  tails  because  the  English  formed  the  habit  in 
hunting  across  the  country,  in  order  to  prevent  their  horse's  tails  get- 
ting caught  in  the  hedges  when  they  leaped  them." 

"  There  are  a  few  foreign  dudes  here  who  do  it,  but  there  is  no 
danger  of  the  style  becoming  popular,  for  a  horse  so  treated  is  un- 
marketable here  ;  no  Mexican  would  buy  such  a  guy." 

"  Happily  it  has  also  become  unfashionable  with  us,  now,"  said 
Florence.  "  The  leading  ladies  in  the  city  —  those  most  powerful 
in  setting  a  social  example,  —  have  declared  against  it  on  account  of 
the  cruelty,  and  have  agreed  to  own  nothing  but  horses  with  long 
tails." 

"  And  so  the  bob-tailed  nags  are  descending  the  social  ladder, 
and  have  already  reached  the  hack-horse  stage,"  said  Eliot. 

"  Good  !  good  !  "  cried  Mrs.  Jei-sey.  "  A  horse  looks  mutilated 
and  ungainly  deprived  of  his  tail.  They  might  as  well  clip  his 
ears." 

"  If  it  were  the  fashion  in  England  for  horses  to  go  lame  in  one 
leg,"  said  her  husband,  "  thousands  of  people  would  think  it  the 
most  graceful  gait  possible,  and  spavined  beasts  would  be  at  a  pre- 
mium !  " 

All  the  horses  of  the  party  had  the  characteristic  of  long  full 
tails  and  manes.  Pablo  rode  a  dashing  pony,  black  as  night,  and 
Harry's  steed  in  particular  was  the  object  of  many  admiring  glances. 
Mr.  Jersey,  who  had  selected  the  horses  for  the  party,  said  that 
"  Bayito,"  as  Harry's  pony  was  called,  was  one  of  the  best  saddle- 
horses  in  Mexico.  Harry  took  him  to  his  heart  at  once,  and  de- 
clared that  he  would  ride  no  other  horse  while  in  the  city.  He 
quickly  felt  himself  at  home  in  the  saddle  as  if  he  had  been  a  horse- 


160 


THE    CBUISE    OF   A    LAND-YACHT. 


man  all  his  life.  "  Bayito  "  was  a  beautifully  shaped  little  horse  of 
the  "  buckskin  "  color  that  denotes  a  sturdy  strength  and  power  of 
endurance.  His  soft,  expressive  eyes  were  both  intelligent  and 
kindly,  and  every  now  and  then  he  would  give  a  vivacious  Uttle  toss 
to  his  handsome  head.  He  had  a  full,  long-flowing  mane  and  tail 
and  forelock,  of  a  rich,  ruddy  brown  that  in  the  sunlight  was  ahve 
with  golden  gUntings. 

They  went   at  a   quick  walk  through 
the  streets  out  to  the  Paseo  de  la  Reforma, 
I«>~^^^^^Cn  t'i<^  beautiful  broad  pleasure-way,  leading 

V{        -x  t         *,  straight  out  to  the  castle  of  Chapultepec, 

which  they  had  noticed  with  its  bordering 
line  of  shade-trees  on  the  way  to  the  hotel 
the  morning  before,  running  out  from  the 
great  equestrian  statue.  That  statue,  which 
in  Mexico  is  commonly  called  "  El  caballito  " 
|[|m|pi||i  ■"  *  (the  little  horse),  represents  King  Charles 
IV.  of  Spain,  and  bears  an  inscription 
which  is  the  Si)anish  equivalent  of  "  Pre- 
served as  a  work  of  Art."  This  is  a 
delicate  way  of  conveying  the  inference 
that  it  was  not  out  of  respect  to  the  mon- 
arch that  the  statue  was  permitted  to  exist  after  Mexico  rid  herself 
of  the  Spanish  yoke.  It  was  the  work  of  the  great  Spanisli  sculp- 
tor and  architect,  Tolsa,  who  came  to  Mexico  in  the  last  century  as 
du-ector  of  the  San  Carlos  Academy  of  Fme  Arts.  This  statue, 
which  is  cast  in  one  piece,  is  the  first  equestrian  monument  made  in 
the  New  world,  and  is  still  called  the  best. 


^„  /  I 


THK    CRUISE    OF    A    LANP-YAf'HT. 


161 


They  stopped  at  a  restaurant  on  the  Paseo  and  dismounted  to 
take  a  cup  of  coffee  and  a  roll,  at  little  tables  in  front,  over- 
looking the  broad  sidewalk,  while  a  man  looked  after  their  horses. 
The  early  morning  air  was  cold,  and  the  coffee  warmed  them  up 
pleasantly.  They  set  out  at  a  quicker  pace  towards  Chapidtepec. 
"  Bayito "  showed  a  disposition  to  go  still  faster,  and  to  keep 
him  along  with  the  others  Harry  was  obliged  to  hold  him  reined 
in  pretty  tightly.  "  Corremonos  un  poquito  ? "  suggested  Pablo, 
glancing  inquiringly  at  Harry,  who  correctly  inferred  that  tlie  words 
must  mean  "  Shall  we  run  a  bit  ?  "  for,  at  a  slight  tap  from  tlie  whip, 
the  Mexican  boy's  pony  shot  rapidly  forward.  "  Bayito  "  needed 
no  urging  to  follow  suit,  for  in  a  second  he  was  oft"  like  a  flash,  rim- 
ning  at  full  speed  over  the  level  way.  It  made  Harry  catch  his 
breath  at  first,  while  his  heart  seemed  to  leap  into  his  throat.  But 
the  swift  motion  was  fascinating ;  he  began  to  feel  as  if  he  himself 
were  a  part  of  the  horse,  as  the  long,  quick  bounds  carried  him 
rapidly  ahead.  Instinctively,  with  a  feeling  of  exultation  and  a  sense 
of  mastery,  he  thought  of  himself  at  the  helm  of  the  Bryidiilda,  ^vith 
the  main  sheet  in  his  hand  just  as  he  was  now  holding  the  reins, 
ploughmg  swiftly  over  the  waves  with  the  wind  free  on  the  quarter 
and  all  sail  set.  The  two  horses  kept  well  abreast,  and  every  now 
and  then  Pablo  looked  across  to  Harry  with  sparkling  eyes  and  a 
friendly  smile.  They  were  not  far  from  Chapultepec  when  Pablo 
reined  in  his  pony.  "  Bayito,"  with  evident  reluctance,  was  induced 
to  slacken  his  pace  in  tlie  same  degree.  "  Como  le  gusta  Usted  ?  — 
How  you  like,  Meester  Marsden,  the  fast  going  in  the  horse  ?  "  said 
Pablo.  The  horses  were  drawing  long,  rapid  breaths ;  their  necks 
were  wet  with  sweat,  and  the  two  bovs  were  also  brcatliing  (juickly, 


162  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

with  flushed,  excited  faces.  "  First  class  !  "  cried  Harry.  "  But 
suppose  you  call  nie  Harry  !  Then  I  will  call  you  Pablo.  We  are 
going  to  be  good  friends,  I  know  !  "  and  he  extended  his  hand, 
which  Pablo  took  heartily. 

"  Hah-rree  —  amiguito  Enrique!  We  must  then  futear  —  that 
ees,  speak  with  '  thou'  the  one  to  the  other,  as  say  good  friends." 

"  Say  thee  and  thou  to  each  other  ?  How  queer  that  would 
sound  !     Only  the  Quakers  do  that  with  us." 

"  I  mean  hablando  Castelkmo,  —  in  talking  Spanish.  It  seegni- 
fies  friendship  that  is  eentimate." 

"  Just  the  same  as  when  we  call  each  other  by  first  names  in 
English  !  —  I  tell  you  what,  Pablo,  we'll  teach  each  other.  You  say 
things  to  me  in  Spanish  and  I'll  repeat  them  and  tell  you  the  English 
of  it,  and  I'll  talk  English  to  you  and  you'll  tell  me  the  Spanish  of 
it." 

The  proposition  was  joyfully  ratified  and  the  first  Spanish-Eng- 
lish lesson  Avas  proceeding  with  much  vivacity,  when  the  rest  of  the 
party  came  galloping  up  behind.  "  Bravo  muchachos  !  "  cried  Eliot. 
"  Good  boys  !  You  are  turning  out  a  '  buen  ginete,'  —  a  good  rider 
- —  already  ;  Harry." 

"  That  Bayito,"  said  Mr.  Jersey,  "  is  a  regular  goer  from  Goville! 
He  wiU  not  only  run  like  the  wind,  but  he  wants  to  keep  it  u[)  all 
day.  Then  he  is  gentle  as  a  lamb  besides,  and  every  gait  he  strikes 
is  wonderfully  easy  —  it  is  like  riding  on  velvet." 

They  passed  through  the  gate  of  the  castle  grounds  and  weie 
soon  riding  beneath  the  grand  old  cypresses  of  tlic  famous  grove  of 
Chapultepec.  Many  of  the  great  trees,  with  trunks  of  cnoruious  cir- 
cumference, had  been   standing  since  the  days  of  .Montcruiua.      It 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LANI 


163 


being  January,  their  branches  were  leafless,  but  the  hmg  pendants 
of  gray  moss  luiug  thickly  like  venerable  banners.  As  they  rode 
along  beneath  the  sylvan  arches  it  seemed  as  if  they  were  in  some 
solemn  temple  of  nature,  and  for  a  while  there  was  in  the  company 
an  instinctive  silence  that  was  only  broken  by  a  clatter  of  hoofs. 
On  one  side  the  precipitous  face  of  the  hill  rose  abruptly,  clothed 
with  a  tangle  of  wild  shrubbery,  and  on  the  other,  here  and  there  a 
straight  narrow  aisle  led  off  to  the  westward  towards  the  Molino  del 
Key,  making  an  impressive  vista  between  the  warm  brown  trunks 
of  the  aJmahuefes,  as  they  call  the  taxus,  or  American  cypress,  in 
Mexico.  They  passed  entirely  around  the  hill  and  paused  a  moment 
to  admire  the  greatest  tree  of  all,  known  as  the  Montezuma  cj^n-ess. 
In  the  midst  of  the  garden  there  rose  the  simple,  tasteful  monument 
to  the  memory  of  the  bra\e  cadets  of  the  military  school  who  fell  in 
defence  of  the  castle  against  the  Americans  in  the  war  with  our 
country.  Then  they  ascended  the  hill  by  the  gradual  incline  of  the 
winding  road.  At  the  gate  there  stood  as  sentry  one  of  the  cadets  of 
the  military  school,  the  West  Point  of  Mexico,  that  occupies  all  the 
summit  in  the  rear  of  the  castle,  which  is  now  the  official  residence  of 
the  President  of  the  Republic.  Catching  sight  of  a  young  lieuten- 
ant inside,  Eliot,  recognizing  an  old  friend,  exclaimed  :  ''  Ah,  there 
is  Teniente  Brito  !  "  He  called  to  him,  and  received  a  hearty  wel- 
come from  the  oflicer,  who  was  one  of  the  instructors  of  the  school. 
He  cordially  invited  them  to  pass  inside.  From  the  parapet 
before  the  castle  they  faced  one  of  the  most  beautif id  and  celebrated 
landscapes  in  the  world.  At  their  feet  lay  the  rich,  cultivated  plain 
of  the  valley,  diversified  with  many  trees.  In  its  midst  spread  the 
o-reat  citv,  witli  the   luoad   lake  Texcoco  gbttering  beyond,  and   all 


164  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

around  ran  the  great  girdle  of  mountains,  culminating  in  the  two 
lofty  and  snow-mantled  volcanoes.  The  sun  had  now  warmed  the 
morning  air,  and  everything  was  glorified  in  the  clear,  golden  light. 
For  a  lono-  time  they  stood  in  speechless  admiration,  noting  detail 
after  detail  of  a  picture  that  seemed  to  contain  no  blemish  upon  its 
■wonderful  beauty. 

"  Do  you  never  tire  of  this  scene  ?  Does  it  not  grow  common- 
place when  you  have  it  liefore  you  day  after  day  ?  "  said  Mabel  to 
the  young  lieutenant  at  her  side. 

"  Never  !  It  grows  more  glorious  the  more  I  know  it,  and  it  has 
been  ])efore  my  eyes  ever  since  I  entered  as  cadet,  ten  years  ago. 
And  I  am  constantly  finding  new  beauty  in  the  scene ;  effects  of 
light  and  shade,  and  of  atmosi)here,  that  I  never  before  noticed." 

"  Much  as  I  have  rambled  over  this  valley,  there  are  many  intei'- 
esting  spots  I  do  not  yet  know,"  said  Eliot.  "  Charley  Holyoke, 
■when  be  canie  North,  told  me  about  a  most  romantic  place  that  he 
discovered  and  used  to  ride  out  to,  olf  back  of  Chapultepec  some- 
-where.  A  paper  mill  was  there.  I  wonder  if  it  is  far  from  here? 
Do  you  know  it  ?  ' 

"The  Molino  de  Santa  Teresa,  you  mean,"  said  Mr.  Jersey. 
"  Charley  and  I  were  riding  out  together  when  he  discovered  it.  It 
is  several  miles  out  from  here,  back  in  the  foot-hills.  It  is  a  place 
well  worth  seeing.      Shall  we  ride  out  there  ?  " 

"  By  all  nu-aus  !  "  cried  liis  wife,  eiitluisiastically.  '•  That  is.  if 
the  others  —  ?  " 

They  were  all  eager  for  g.)iiig.  "Then  we'll  inake  a  forenoon 
of  it,"  said  Mr.  Jersey.      "  Business  can  wait  on  a  day  liUc  this." 

Bidding  adieu  to  Lieutenant  Brito,  who  promised   to  show    tiu'iu 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  165 

over  the  castle  and  military  school  if  they  would  come  out  some 
morning,  they  set  out  down  the  hill  and  off  to  the  westward, 
through  the  Bosque,  as  the  grove  is  called.  The  ground  gradually  and 
evenly  rose  towards  the  foot-hills  of  the  high  western  range,  the 
Sierra  de  la  Cruz,  the  Mountains  of  the  Cross.  They  passed  by 
handsome  country  villas,  and  along  a  road  which  three  centuries  of 
use  by  the  feet  of  myriads  of  horses,  donkeys  and  mules,  and  the 
torrential  summer  rains,  had  sunk  several  feet  below  the  surrounding 
surface.  For  a  considerable  distance  they  skbted  the  great  cemetery 
of  Dolores,  the  largest  around  the  city.  Fields  of  the  gigantic 
maguey,  with  the  thick,  sharp-pointed  leaves  sometimes  eight  or  ten 
feet  from  the  ground,  bordered  the  road.  This  variety  of  the  agave 
is  cidtivated  all  through  this  part  of  Mexico  for  the  sake  of  the  pop- 
idar  beverage  that  is  fermented  from  its  milky-looking  sap. 

"  Wait  a  moment  and  I  will  show  you  how  the  peones  mend 
their  clothes  on  the  spot,  when  they  happen  to  tear  them,"  said 
Ignacio.  He  took  his  knife  and  cut  around  the  thorn-like  end  of 
one  of  these  leaves,  about  an  inch  from  the  point.  Givmg  a  dex- 
terous motion,  it  was  detached,  and  something  like  two  yards  of 
coarse  fibre  was  pulled  out  of  the  leaf  in  six  or  eight  parallel  fila- 
ments. "  Here  you  have  a  needle  and  thread  all  in  one,  and  ready 
for  instant  use,"  he  said. 

"  That  fibre  is  strong  and  will  hold,  though  it  Avouldn't  make  a 
very  pretty  darn  !  "  said  Eliot. 

Mounting  continually  higher  and  higher  on  the  valley  slope,  the 
view  behind  them  grew  grander  and  more  sweeping,  as  they  turned 
to  afbnire  its  varied  panorama.  The  ground  slojied  more  irregularly, 
and  a  broad  ravine-like  valley  began  to  furrow  it.     They  rode  along 


166  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

beside  this,  and  it  grew  narrower,  with  more  precipitous  sides,  as 
they  progressed.  At  its  end  stood  a  cluster  of  massive  buildings 
amidst  a  large   grove. 

"  There  is  the  mill,"  said  Mr.  Jersey.  "  And  do  you  see  those 
holes  in  the  steep  sides  of  the  valley  thickly  dotted  aU  around  ? 
That  is  where  the  operatives  live,  in  caverns  excavated  in  the  soft 
rock.  Perhaps  such  dwellings  are  warm  and  dry,  but  it  seems 
hardly  the  thing  for  human  beings  to  live  like  annuals  in  their 
burrows.  And  they  go  to  work  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and 
leave  oft'  at  nine  at  night,  earning  but  three  reales,  or  thirty-seven 
and  one-half  cents,  a  day.  It  is  the  same  in  the  factories  all  over 
Mexico." 

"  It  is  a  shame  that  human  l)eings  anywhere  should  live  to  work, 
instead  of  working  to  live,"  said  Eliot.  "  For  that  is  what  it 
amounts  to  ;  outside  of  their  work  they  have  no  time  left  exce])t  for 
sleep,  and  to  devour  some  coarse  food.  After  childhood  is  over, 
with  its  frolics,  what  is  left  of  life,  except  toil  ?  " 

"  And  here  there  is  not  much  left  even  of  childhood,  for  the 
little  ones  go  into  the  mills  almost  as  soon  as  they  can  talk  plain," 
said  Mr.  Jersey.  "  The  industrial  conditions  of  Mexico  are  such 
that  these  things  have  to  be,  for  the  present.  Some  day  they  \v\U. 
impVove,  but  now  the  jjoor  people  are  so  ignorant  that  they  do  not 
know  enough  to  be  unhappy  in  their  lot  !  " 

They  rode  past  the  upjier  side  ol'  llic  mill,  and  then  down  a  steep, 
narrow  jtatli,  bordered  by  a  thick  wall,  on  the  jtrccipitous  side  of  the 
valley.  They  dismounted  in  a  garden-like  court  in  front  of  the  mill, 
and  left  their  horses  in  care  of  three  bright-eved  boys.  Tlicpict- 
ures(pi(!     buildings  of  the   mill    rose   terrace-like  against    the   slo])e. 


THE    CRUISE    OF   A    LAND-YACHT.  167 

The  place  was  formerly  the  convent  of  Santa  Teresa,  and  several  of 
the  builtlings  were  portions  of  the  old  convent.  Eliot  pointed  out 
that  they  were  fortified  for  a  siege  against  rohl)ers,  like  the  mines 
they  saw  at  Zacatecas. 

All  around  them  they  heard  the  refreshing  melody  of  the  bab- 
bling rush  of  waters.  Down  beside  the  mill  there  poured  a  clear 
stream  in  a  series  of  cascades  from  a  tunnel-like  arch  in  the  face  of 
one  of  the  buildings  high  up  the  slope,  the  bright  water  sUdmg 
swiftly  down  from  fall  to  fall,  enclosed  in  smoothly  cemented  masonry. 
Steps  rose  irregidarly  beside  the  stream,  and  the  way,  together  Avith 
the  water,  was  bordered  with  a  profusion  of  flowers  and  shrubbery. 
These  stairs  led  them  to  a  broad  level  space  overlooking  the  court-yard 
of  the  mill  and  the  valley  below.  It  was  a  sort  of  plaza  where  car- 
riages could  stand,  and  was  bordered  by  perpendicular,  tree-crowned 
cliffs,  in  the  face  of  which  was  hewn  a  cliapel  for  the  mill,  with  a 
commonplace  ugly  front.  A  pleasant  woodland  path  rambled  along 
the  stee])  slope  of  the  valley,  and  around  tlirough  the  gi-ove  to  the 
top  of  the  cliff.  There  were  flowers  of  many  kinds  beside  the  patli, 
and  among  them  an  abundance  of  violets,  fillhig  the  pure  air  with 
their  ric^hly  delicate  breath. 

"  Such  are  the  romantic  sites  and  Edcn-likc  surroiuidings  of  our 
Mexican  factories,"  said  Mr.  Jersey,  as  he  led  the  way  around  through 
these  charming  scenes.  "  What  a  pity  the  toilers  withui  their  walls 
cannot  enjoy  a  life  tliat  niat<-hes  tlio  beauty  of  the  world  aliout 
them !  " 

As  they  rode  cityward,  their  faces  flushed  and  happy  Avith  exer- 
cise, Mabel  said  :  "  The  pleasure  of  this  ride  alone  would  repay  for 
the  trouble  of  coming  on  this  long  journey  to  Mexico." 


168  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

They  returned  through  the  beautiful  suburban  city  of  Tacubaya, 
where  crooked,  lane-Hke  ways  passed  between  the  high  walls  of  ex- 
tensive villa  grounds.  The  walls,  often  venerable-looking  and  fort- 
ress-like, with  massive  buttresses,  were  crested  with  tangles  of  trailing 
growth,  starry  with  flowers. 

When  almost  back  in  the  City  of  Mexico,  as  they  neared  the  end  of 
the  Paseo,  Harry  saw  a  great  circular  wooden  structure  a  little  to  the 
southward  of  the  circle  where  stands  the  imposing  Columbus  monu- 
ment. A  similar  structure  stood  a  little  farther  away.  "  La  Plaza 
de  toros  de  Colon,"  said  Pablo  ;  "  the  other  ees  the  one  of  Bucareli." 

"  The  bull-rings  ;  the  places  where  they  have  the  bull-fights," 
explained  Mr.  Jersey,  who  was  riding  near  by. 

"  The  sport  was  forbidden  within  the  Federal  District  when  I 
was  here  before,"  said  EHot. 

"  Anil  when  the  authorities  permitted  it  again,  shortly  after  you 
left,  they  had  a  regular  bull-fighting  boom,  and  at  one  time  tliore 
were  no  less  than  seven  rings  in  the  city.  But  now  liai)i)ily  it  ap- 
pears to  be  on  the  wane,  and  there  is  seldom  more  than  one  fight  on 
a  Sunday  afternoon.  The  best  people  are  opposed  to  it,  but  it  is 
such  a  long-established  amusement  among  Spanish-speaking  peoples 
that  it  is  difficult  to  abolish  it.  How  would  you  like  to  see  a  bull- 
fight, Harry  ?  " 

"  I  couldn't  be  hired  to,"  rei)li('d  the  boy,  finnly. 

"  I  saw  one,  and  never  care  to  see  another  !  "  said  Eliot.  "  It  is 
exciting,  but  cruel." 

"  Most  tourists  who  come  here  want  to  see  one.  out  of  curiosity." 
said  Mr.  Jersey.  "  Although  they  take  place  on  Sunday,  many  of 
our   Americau  visitors   who  strictly  observe  the   day  at    lioiuc  act    on 


THK  CHUISE  OF  A  LAND-YAOHT.  169 

tlu'  idea  of  (loins;-  in  Uuuw  as  tlie  Romans  do.  Their  scruples  '  don't 
count  '  in  a  foreign  land.  I  can  tell  you  a  good  thing  on  one  of 
our  countrymen.  Last  year  there  Avas  an  excursion  party  here  from 
Illinois,  and  it  included  a  number  of  people  from  one  of  the  smaller 
cities.  Among  them  was  an  Orthodox  Deacon  wiio  slyly  went  to 
take  in  the  biill-fight  one  Sunday  afternoon.  On  his  return,  he  gave 
to  the  Sunday-school  of  his  church  a  lecture  about  his  trip  to  Mexico, 
illustrating  mth  a  profusion  of  stereopticon  views.  Everything  went 
smoothly  until  he  prefaced  a  certain  lantern-slide  on  his  list  with  the 
words :  '  Next,  my  dear  children,  we  shall  behold  a  picture,  about 
the  original  of  which  I  can  of  course  only  tell  you  by  hearsay,  since 
it  represents  the  cruel  national  amusement  of  the  Mexican  people, 
which,  moreover,  takes  place  on  the  afternoon  of  the  Sabbath  day. 
I  could  not  with  my  presence  sanction  an  occasion  so  wicked,  but 
since  a  view  of  a  bull-fight  chances  to  be  included  in  this  collection 
which  I  have  secured  for  your  delectation,  I  A\all  exhibit  it  that  I 
may  the  more  strongly  impress  upon  you  the  wrong-doing  of  habit. 
You  will  see  —  '  He  had  proceeded  thus  far  when,  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  the  audience  as  well  as  to  his  own  unutterable  consternation, 
there  appeared  upon  the  screen  a  view  of  one  of  the  most  exciting- 
moments  of  the  sport,  in  the  foreground  of  which  there  was  to  be 
seen  an  unmistakable  [)ortrait  of  the  Deacon  himself,  the  most  intense 
interest  in  the  proceedings  manifest  in  his  familiar  features.  It 
seems  that  there  was  in  the  party  a  mischievous  young  man  who  did 
not  like  the  Deacon.  Catching  Avind  of  the  Deacon's  purpose  to  go  to 
the  fight  he  contrived  to  secure  a  seat  in  his  neighborhood,  and, 
taking  advantage  of  a  favorable  moment,  he  made  a  successful  snap- 
shot with  the  instantaneous  camera  that   he  had  with  him.     Making 


170  THE    CKUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

a  good  lantern-slide  from  his  negative,  he  contrived  to  substitute  it, 
just  before  the  lecture,  for  the  bull-fight  scene  which  it  was  proposed 
to  exhibit !  " 

"  There  is  another  place  that  I  have  always  intended  going  to, 
but  have  only  seen  from  a  distance,"  said  Eliot,  as  their  friends  took 
leave  of  them  at  the  hotel.     "  That  is,  the  Peiion." 

"  Neither  have  we,"  said  Mr.  Jersey.  "  Suppose  we  take  our 
next  ride  out  there  ?  " 

"  All  right.  How  will  day  after  to-morrow  do  ?  Harry  here, 
will  be  suffering  from  the  effects  of  his  maiden  ride  tt)-morrow,  I 
suppose,  and  will  not  feel  like  gohig  again  so  soon." 

The  trip  was  agreed  upon,  though  Harry  protested  that  he  felt 
all  right  and  coidd  go  the  next  morning  as  well  as  not ;  after  his  long- 
bicycle  experiences  he  would  feel  no  effects  from  such  a  gentle-gaited 
steed  as  Bayito.  After  all,  he  was,  however,  pretty  stiff  in  the 
legs  the  next  day,  but  he  felt  in  fine  condition  when  the  mem- 
bers of  the  same  party  appeared  for  the  Penon  ride  early  the  second 
morning. 

They  started  in  an  easterly  direction,  going  past  the  Palace  and 
through  a  quaint  old  part  of  the  city,  where  there  was  a  sluggish 
canal,  most  picturesque  in  its  surroundings,  but  most  abominable  to 
the  nostrils.  "  It  is  all  on  account  of  the  bad  drainage  of  the  city, 
which  is  built  so  nearly  on  a  level  with  the  lake  that  there  is  hardly 
any  fall  in  the  sewers,"  said  Ignacio.  "  But  now  they  are  spending 
millions  in  carrying  out  the  much  needed  new  drainage-system  that 
will  convert  Mexico  from  one  of  the  unhealthiest,  to  one  of  the 
healthiest  cities  in  the  world.  They  are  making  a  tunnel  that  will 
drain  Lake  Texcoco  out  of  the  valley." 


THE    CKUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


171 


They  passed  out  of  the  city  hmits  at  the  Gate  of  San  Ljizaro, 
the  Garita  de  San  Ljizaro,  as  it  is  called.  The  literal  meaning  of 
garita  is  "  sentry-box."  There  they  saw  officials  carefully  inspecting 
the  loaded  teams  that  came  in  from  the  country.  At  every  highway 
leading  out  of  town  there  is  a  gate  with  an  office  of  the  city 
customs-service,  and  there  a  tax  is  collected  on  nearly  all  ai-ticles 
brought  into  town  —  including  provisions,  vegetables,  fruit,  fuel,  etc. 
It  is  the  same  custom  that  prevails  in  Paris,  Vienna,  and  many  other 
European  cities,  and  known  as  the  octroi  in  France. 

They  soon  saw  a  broad  plain  stretching  before  them,  and  cross- 
ing a  canal  that  smelt  still  worse  than  the  other,  they  entered  upon 
the  smooth  level.  Something  like  two  miles  away  the  great 
rocky  mass  of  the  famous  Peiion  rose  out  of  the  plain  like  an  island 
at  sea,  with  the  broad  lake  shining  like  a  band  of  silver  just  beyond. 
The  plain  was  like  a  floor,  and  was  covered  with  brown  grass  closely 
cropped  by  cattle.  "  We  can  let  our  horses  out  here  for  a  good 
gallop,"  said  Ignacio,  who  knew  the  way.  "  There  are  no  stones  in 
the  o-round,  nor  any  obstructions  between  here  and  the  Peiion." 

What  a  wild,  exciting  scamper  they  had !  Bayito  was  off  like 
a  shot,  and  Harry  felt  his  veins  thrill  with  a  keen  exultation  as 
the  beautiful  horse  bore  hini  lightly,  swiftly  on,  seeming  almost  to 
fly  as  his  feet  skimmed  the  ground  with  a  quick  touch  and  go. 
Harry  kept  him  well  reined  in  at  first,  so  as  to  keep  beside  Pablo, 
whose  black  pony,  sturdy  and  spirited  as  it  was,  was  no  match  for 
Bayito.  At  last  a  desire  to  see  how  fast  he  could  go  impelled  him 
to  give  his  horse  free  rein,  and  Bayito  dashed  ahead  like  the  w4nd. 
As  they  neared  the  Penon  Harry  slackened  his  pace  to  let  Pablo  catch 
up.     They  found  themselves  far  ahead  of  the  rest  of  the  company. 


172  THE    CRUISK    OF    A    LANU-YAOHT. 

SO  they  slowed  down  to  a  walk  —  soinethin<>-  that  Bayito  was  still 
reluctant  to  do. 

There  was  a  large  building  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  and  here  the 
party  stopped.  "  We  will  take  a  look  at  the  hot  baths  for  a 
moment,"  said  Ignat-io.  The  building  was  formerly  a  monastery, 
and  was  now  being  reconstructed  into  a  hotel,  with  a  tramway  line 
from  the  city  to  give  access  to  the  place  as  a  health-resort.  The 
baths  were  freshly  fitted  up  in  luxurious  style.  The  halls  and 
chambers  were  richly  frescoed  in  designs  based  upon  Aztec  motives 
of  decoration.  In  each  bath-room  was  a  large  tank  sunken  below 
the  floor,  and  in  one  of  these  the  water  was  running,  almost  boiling- 
hot,  and  filling  the  room  with  steam.  "  If  any  of  us  have  rheuma- 
tism, this  is  the  place  for  a  course  of  bathing,  they  say,"  remarked 
Ignacio. 

"  No  thank  you  !  "  said  Eliot.  "  That  is  not  the  kind  of  batliing 
we  like,  is  it,  Harry?  But  what  a  hot  country  Mexico  must  be 
underground !  Nearly  every  city  I  know  has  hot  or  warm  springs 
near  by." 

At  the  foot  of  the  precipitous  slope  they  found  a  squad  of 
soldiers  quartered  in  a  long,  low  buildhig.  Leaving  their  horses 
here,  they  induced  one  of  the  soldiers  to  guide  them  by  the  easiest 
route  to  the  top  of  the  hill.  Here  there  was  a  view  of  marvelous 
beautv.  They  seemed  to  be  in  the  centre  of  the  valley,  with  an  un- 
broken range  of  vision  all  around.  The  city  spread  away  close  liy. 
The  lower  slopes  of  the  mountains  to  the  southward  were  veiled  witli 
a  delicate  dust-haze  drifted  against  them  by  the  breeze,  and  their 
heights  were  clear  and  luminous  in  the  early  sunshine.  The  great 
shallow  lake  spread  away  from  the  foot  of  the  hill,  and  from  its  shore 


OF  A  LAND-YACH'l 


173 


there  eaiue  a  salty  sea-like  smell  that  seemed  very  familiar  and  wel- 
come to  Harry's  nostrils.  "  I  had  no  idea  I  should  get  a  whiil'  like 
that  in  the  heart  of  Mexieo  !  "  he  exelaimed. 

The  lake  was  like  a  mirror,  with  here  and  there  a  "  cat's-paw  " 
ruffling  its  glassy  surface.  The  boats  of  fishermen,  seining  for  the 
pescado  bianco,  or  little  "  white  fish  "  so  abundant  in  the  markets 
of  the  capital,  dotted  the  water.  On  its  farther  shore  the  dark 
mountain  wall  seemed  to  rise  directly  from  the  water,  that  reflected 
its  long  reach.  White-walled  towns,  among  them  historic  Texcoco, 
nestled  apparently  at  the  very  edge  of  the  lake.  Beyond  the  dark 
range  the  two  snowy  volcanoes  rose  through  the  calm  air  in  serene 
purity. 

"  It  is  a  scene  for  a  poet,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Jersey.  "  How  glad 
I  am  we  have  found  out  this  place  !  We  shall  ride  out  here  often 
now." 

"  Probal)ly  not  one  tourist  in  a  thousand  knows  anytliing  about 
the  Penon,"  said  Eliot.  "  And  it  is  one  of  the  points  best  worth 
visiting  around  here.  But  1  could  find  hardly  an3i;hing  about  it  in 
the  guide-books." 

"  Lake  Texcoco  is  really  wonderfully  beautiful,"  said  Mabel. 
"  And  they  are  going  to  drain  it  away,  you  say  ?     What  a  pity  !  " 

"  If  your  home  Avere  in  our  capital  you  would  not  think  so,"  re- 
plied Ignacio.  "  The  lake  is  fair  to  see,  but  when  green  and  fertile 
fields  take  the  place  of  that  glistening  water,  thousands  of  oiu-  people 
will  live  where  thousands  now  die  —  poisoned  by  the  foul  breath  of 
the  stagnant  sewage." 

"  The  lake  has  been  growing  shallower  and  shallower  ever  since 
the  Coiupu'st,"   said  Eliot.      "  Don    Francisco  de  Garay,  the   great 


174  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

Mexican  engineer,  told  me  that  now  it  sometimes  was  dried  up 
entirely  when  a  steady  wind  drew  across  it  for  a  inimber  of  days  in 
succession,  the  dry,  rapidly  moving  air  sucking  up  the  moisture  like 
a  sponge  that  is  passed  over  a  wet  surface.  The  lake  is  but  a  few 
feet  deep  now.  In  the  time  of  the  Aztecs  it  was  very  deep,  and 
when  the  Spaniards  launched  their  ships  upon  it  to  attack  JNIonte- 
zuma  in  his  island  capital,  this  Peiion  was  an  island.  You  remember 
we  were  reading  in  Prescott,  the  other  evening  on  the  car,  how  the 
Aztecs  showered  their  arrows  upon  the  fleet  of  Cortes  as  it  sailed 
past  this  place.  The  lake  has  shoaled  because  some  of  its  tributaries 
now  flow  into  it  no  longer.  The  Cuautitlan  river  is  carried  out  of 
the  valley  through  the  great  tajo,  or  drainage  cut,  of  Nochistongo, 
made  by  the  Spaniards  in  the  early  days.  We  entered  the  vafley 
through  the  cut  before  daylight.  Enriquez,  the  great  engineer  of 
that  day,  proposed  to  drain  the  lake  entirely  away  on  a  plan  similar 
to  that  now  being  carried  out.  But  the  authorities  thought  it  im- 
practicable, and  substituted  a  tunnel  at  Nochistongo,  which,  after  a 
disastrous  flood  from  its  cavmg  in,  was  converted  into  the  open  cut 
—  one  of  the  greatest  examples  of  excavation  known.  Other  streams 
are  kept  out  of  the  lake  by  the  use  of  their  waters  for  irrigation,  and 
still  another  cause  of  the  shoaling  is  the  sediment  brought  down  by 
the  streams." 

Their  guide  led  the  partv  down  the  hill  on  the  side  towards  the 
lake,  but  Eliot,  Pablo  and  Harry  lingered  a  few  minutes  to  look 
around  at  various  points.  They  thought  they  would  descend  by  a 
shorter,  tlunigh  steeper  way.  Suddenly  there  came  a  sharp  cry  from 
Pal>lo,  followed  by  a  warning  :  "  Cuidado  con  las  espinas  !  "  (Look 
out  for  tlie  tlie  thorns!)      Almost  sinudtancoiisly  Ilany  yelled  "Oav  ! 


.AND-YACHT. 


175 


Ow  !  "  Pablo  i)(>iiite(l  nu'fuUy  to  a  lot  of  dry  little  ball-like  fra^ 
meiits  of  cactus  scattered  everywhere  over  the  o-iound,  bristling  vnth. 
spines.  The  two  boys  had  iniwittingly  stepped  on  them,  and  the 
needle-like  points  had  penetrated  the  leather  of  their  shoes  and 
fastened  themselves  in  their  feet.  "  I  thought  a  snake  had  bitten 
me  !  "  said  Harry. 

"  Carramba  !  Como  pican  !  "  (Gracious  !  How  they  hurt !)  cried 
Pablo,  limping  and  half-laughing  at  the  same  time. 

"  Those  chollas  (pronounced  choyas)  are  the  porcupines  of  the 
vegetable  kingdom,"  said  Eliot.  "  Experience  with  them  is  enough 
to  make  anybody  believe  in  the  total  depravity  of  inanimate  things. 
It  is  said  that  they  will  jump  at  you  of  their  own  acc-ord  as  you  pass 
bv,  and  I  am  almost  ready  to  believe  it !  I  remember  that  the  first 
ones  I  saw  I  felt  a  curiosity  to  examine.  I  had  been  warned  of  their 
danger,  so  I  gingerly  took  it  i)y  one  of  the  spines  and  lifted  it  to 
look  at  it,  when  the  infernal  thing  seemed  to  give  a  spring  and 
fastened  something  like  a  dozen  of  its  sharp  claws  m  the  back  of  my 
hand  !  Now  you  boys  had  better  take  off  your  shoes  and  stockings 
and  let  me  help  you  pull  the  things  out  of  your  feet.  It  will  hurt, 
for  you  will  find  your  shoes  almost  clinched  to  your  feet.  Be  care- 
ful now,  before  you  sit  down,  or  your  trousers  will  be  spiked  on  to 
your  l)odies,  and  you  will  not  find  it  very  comfortable  riding  back ! 
It  is  a  peculiarity  of  cactus-spines  that  they  are  hooked  at  the  end, 
like  porcupine  quills,  and  it  is  easier  for  them  to  go  in  than  to  come 
out." 

The  spines  were  extricated  at  last,  thanks  to  Eliot's  offices  as  sui-- 
o-eon,  and  by  the  exercise  of  extreme  caution  they  avoided  further 
encounter  with  the  chollas.      At  the  foot  of  tlie  hill  they  found  their 


176  THE    CKUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

companions  looking  at  some  old  relief-earving  on  the  side  of  the 
rock.  They  were  made  by  the  Aztecs  shortly  after  the  Conquest, 
and  rejjresented  gigantic  heads  of  horses,  with  the  elaborate  harness 
of  the  olden  days.  Mr.  Jersey  suggested  that  they  were  possibly 
made  for  sacred  purposes,  since  the  Aztecs  regarded  the  horses 
brought  by  the  Conquerors  with  great  veneration,  and  as  supernat- 
ural beings.  "  On  the  other  side  of  the  hill  there  was  once  a  colos- 
sal relief,"  he  said.  "  It  is  sjjoken  of  by  Humboldt,  and  various 
Mexican  gentlemen  have  told  me  that  they  have  seen  it  themselves. 
But  it  has  now  been  destroyed  by  the  quarrying  of  the  rock." 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

FROM    HARRY    MAKSDEN    IN    MEXICO    TO    DAN   MATTHEWS    IN    BOSTON. 

IIaciende  de  San  Andres, 

ESTADO    I)E    MoKELOS,     MEXICO,    KkB.    1 5,     1S9O. 

Dear  Dan  :  — 

What  a  fine  time  we  are  liaviiii)- !  I  meant  to  write 
several  days  ago,  but  there  has  been  lots  to  do.  We  had  a  "  close 
call"  coming-  down  here.  But  I  won't  tell  you  about  it  till  I  get  to  it. 
When  I  wrote  last  we  had  taken  that  second  horseback  ride. 
Since  then  we  have  had  a  good  many  more,  all  through  the  suburbs 
—  out  to  San  Angel,  out  to  the  old  empty  convent  of  San  Joaquin 
near  Tacuba,  out  to  Churubusco  where  the  battle  with  our  troops 
was  that  the  history  tells  about,  out  to  Coyoacan  where  there  is  a 
beautifid  old  deserted  convent  with  a  ruined  tower  that  I  photo- 
graphed and  liere  inclose  a  lilue  print  of  it  with  some  other  snaps  of 
mine  taken  all  around  where  we  've  been  out  to  Mixcoac,  out  to 
Tlalpam,  etc.  It  was  tine  everywhere,  —  only  aAvfully  dusty  on  the 
roads.  But  that's  nothing.  z\t  San  Angel,  Don  Manuel  Andrade, 
who  is  fatlier  of  Pablo  and  Nacho,  has  a  beautiful  great  house 
Avliere  he  lives  in  the  summer,  and  in  behind  it  there  is  a  <»-reat 
garden  like  a  park  ;  just  as  fine  as  it  can  l)c,  with  sliady  paths  nui- 
ning  all  around  under  the  trees,  and  lots  of  roses  and  other  flowers, 
and  a  big  stone  tank  to  swim  in  with  water  running  in  out  of  a 
lion's   head    in  a   high   stone    walk  witli  maidcn's-Iiair  ferns  "i-owin"- 


178 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


in  the  chinks.  The  water  nnis  out  in  a  stream  all  over  the  garden, 
to  irrigate  it.  The  Andi-ades  have  a  stunning  house  in  the  city, 
and  we've  heen  there  several  times.  It  has  two  patios  —  regular 
outdoor  halls  with  fountains  in  the  cen- 
tre, and  arched  galleries  o£  carved  stone 
all  around,  full  of  flowers.  Folks  don't 
put  flower-pots  in  their  windows  here  ; 
they  keep  them  in  the  patio  summer 
and  winter.  The  windows  open  like 
doors  and  always  have  balconies  where 
the  girls  like  to  stand  and  look  down 
into  the  street.  When  a  fellow  gets 
gone  on  a  girl  he  "  plays  the  bear  "  — 
juega  cJ  oso  —  does  the  bear  act,  we 
would  call  it.  He  just  walks  back  and 
forth  before  the  house  an  hour  at  a 
time  and  keeps  looking  towards  her  balcony.  If  she  takes  any 
notice  of  him  he's  happy,  and  if  she  doesn't  he  knows  it's  no  use. 

We  went  to  the  Andrade's  to  dinner  and  it  was  just  fine.  They  had 
a  lot  of  Mexican  dishes  on  purpose  for  us,  and  I  liked  most  of  them, 
particularly  the  soup,  called  Mole  verde  (it  sounds  almost  like  Molly 
Verdy)  which  is  made  of  green  chiles  with  the  sting  taken  out  of 
them,  and  is  thick  and  green  in  color.  Then  they  had  Mole  de 
Guacolote,  made  of  turkey,  sort  of  stewed,  with  red  chile.  TJiey  eat 
lots  of  chUe  in  this  country,  but  in  the  best  families  they  cook  Mexi- 
can things  real  nice,  and  not  peppery  enough  to  bite  hnrd.  When 
we  went  out  to  Guadalupe  tliey  were  cooking  all  sorts  of  incssfs  in 
the  plaza,  and  I  thought  I  would  cat  an  cnclnlada.  lor  it  loolicd  nice 


THE    CKUISK    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  179 

and  smelt  so,  too.  But  one  mouthful  nearly  took  my  head  off,  it 
was  so  red-hot  with  chile,  and  I  gave  it  to  a  hungry-eyed  dog  that 
asked  for  it  with  a  most  beseeching  look.  He  swallowed  it  without 
a  wink  and  asked  for  some  more,  although  I  thought  it  would  make 
him  paw  his  nose  and  wail  loud  wails  like  a  dog  in  a  restaurant  one 
day  when  Eliot  dropped  a  drop  of  ammonia  under  his  nose  for 
making  himself  too  much  at  home  around  our  table.  The  same 
dogs  go  to  the  same  restaurants  day  after  day,  like  regular  boarders. 

The  Andrades  had  tortillas,  which  are  the  bread  of  the  common 
people,  made  of  corn  soaked  in  lye  and  ground  fine  while  soft. 
They  have  a  hulled-corn  taste,  and  are  thin  as  wafers,  like  griddle- 
cakes  bigger  than  dinner  plates,  and  sort  of  flappy.  They  are  fine 
when  spread  with  mashed  aguacate  and  then  rolled  up.  The  regular 
thing  just  before  desert  anywhere  in  Mexico  is /"r/yo/^s,  (pronounced 
free-ho-less)  or  beans,  stewed,  and  better  than  baked  beans  warmed 
over.  Mexico  beats  even  Boston  on  beans,  for  here  they  eat  them 
every  day.  For  desert  they  had  tamalea  dulces,  made  of  white  corn 
meal  done  up  in  corn  husks,  sweetened  a  little,  with  some  chopped 
almonds  and  raisins  inside,  and  steamed,  making  a  real  nice  little 
pudding  in  each  wrapper,  just  big  enough  for  one  person. 

We  went  there  to  a  tertulia  one  night  —  a  sort  of  time  when 
friends  drop  in  for  the  evening  without  ceremony,  and  it  was  just 
jolly.  Pablo  and  Nacho  have  two  sisters,  and  they  are  pretty,  too. 
The  whole  family  is  musical  and  everybody  sings  and  plays  piano, 
violin,  flute,  guitar,  and  other  instruments,  so  there's  a  regular 
orchestra  of  them.  Florence  brought  round  her  banjo,  and  she  and 
Eliot  sang  some  darkey  songs,  which  the  Andrades  liked  immensely, 
although    they   did   not   catch    on    to    the    funny    j)arts.       And    the 


180 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND— YACHT. 


Andrades  sang  some  Mexican  songs  that  made  us  wild,  they  were  so 
pretty.  We  had  dancing  and  played  games,  and  just  to  show  us  one 
of  their  customs  they  played  the  oUa  game  they  have  during  the 
Christmas  holidays,  which  they  call  the  jjosadas,  —  for  on  nine  suc- 
cessive nights  before  Christmas  it  is  the  custom  to  celebrate  —  each 
evening  for  one  of  the  posadas,  or  taverns,  at  which,  according  to 


,m=^  -  ^ 


A  feiL^  J-S^ 


»4^A!I1  ^.J 


'  "?t^f,of?^  -^•'^         ~[e  X.  t  o  c  o 


tlic    IcgciKl,   .loscph   and    Marv  souglit    ivst    hcfon'   tlic   Savioui 
born  in  the  stable.      They  hung  up  an   olla,  a  big  carllu'ii  ]H>i. 
thin  and  brittle,  and  filled  full  of  candy,  in  the  p;itio  conidor. 
they  blindfolded  one  after  the  otlicr,  and  the  blindfolded   one 
rounil   beating   tlic  an-  with  a   long  stick,  trying  to  hit    tlie  olla 


was 
nade 
riien 
went 
(pro- 


THE    CKUISK    OF    A    I,AND-YACHT.  181 

nounoed  ol-j/ah).  At  last  it  was  given  a  good  thwack  that  broke  it 
and  the  candy  went  flying  in  every  direction,  so  there  was  a  big 
scramble  for  it,  and  the  one  who  hit  the  olla  got  a  prize. 

We  went  sightseeing  round  everywhere,  to  the  National  Museinn 
and  the  Art  Gallery,  and  through  lots  of  splendid  big  churches,  and 
all  over  the  suburbs,  and  out  to  Texcoco  on  the  other  side  of  the 
lake  where  King  Nezahualcoyotl  —  I'll  give  you  a  prize  if  you'll 
pronounce  that  at  sight ;  the  cotjofi  part  is  the  same  as  our  coyote — 
had  a  great  palace  that  is  now  only  a  big  heap  of  dirt,  and  a  summer 
palace  that  is  only  a  heap  of  stones  on  a  hill  near  the  town.  At 
Texcoco  there  are  large  glass-works,  and  a  beautiful  garden  around 
a  mill  not  far  away,  the  Moluio  de  Flores,  the  Mill  of  Flowers,  (it  is 
&  flour  mill,  too),  with  a  lovely  crystal  stream  with  cascades  in  a  wild 
mountain  gorge.  Another  name  that  is  a  sticker  for  you  is  Atzcap- 
otzalco,  one  of  the  suburbs  of  Mexico.  Eliot  said  an  American 
friend  of  his  couldn't  possibly  get  his  tongue  round  the  word,  and 
always  spoke  of  it  as  "  that  name  on  the  street-cars." 

One  of  the  churches  Ave  went  to  see  is  that  of  San  Pablo,  which 
was  confiscated  by  the  government  under  the  Reform  laws.  Lots  of 
the  domes  and  towers  all  over  the  city  belong  to  churches  and  con- 
vents that  were  siezed  and  are  now  used  for  other  purposes — stables, 
theatres,  factories,  schools,  railroad  freight-depots,  etc.  The  church 
of  San  Pablo  is  used  by  Mr.  Jersey's  firm  for  a  hoder/a,  or  storehouse. 
It  is  a  big  place,  bigger  than  Trinity,  and  it  looked  queer  to  see  it  full 
of  American  plows,  reapers,  threshing-machines,  steam  boilers  and 
eno-ines,  with  the  altars  and  sacred  inscriptions  and  frescoes  all 
around.  On  one  of  the  altars  there  was  a  pile  of  soap  l)oxes.  just 
underneath  some  carved  and    painted  cherubs,  a  c<)inl)iiiati(>ii   that 


182 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


made  me  think  of  some  of  the  soap  advertisements  in  the  back  part 
of  the  magazines.  We  also  went  through  an  old  junk-market,  where 
the  girls  bought  a  lot  of  rubbish  and  went  wild  over  it. 

Villa  Guadalupe,  about  three  miles  out  to  the  north,  is  the  most 
famous  pilgrimage  place  in  America,  and  there  are  sacred  shrines 
and  sacred  weUs,  and  all  sorts  of  religious  things  out  there,  all  be- 
cause in  the  early  days  an  Indian  had  a  vision  of  the  Virgin  Mary 
there  which  aU  the  common  j^eople  believed  really  happened.  But 
the  Church  authorities  at  Rome  take  no  stock  in  it  and  ^\iIl  not  endorse 
the  legend,  so  Mr.  Bandelier  told  uncle  Lemuel.  But  the  people 
will  have  it  and  so  their  worship  is  tolerated,  and  they  flock  there 
jf-.  by  thousands  from  all  parts  of  Mexico. 

There  are  lots  of  interesting  things  to 
see  out  there,  and  there  is  a  queer  gar- 
den  with   walls  and  rocks  all   crusted 
over  with  mosaic-work  made 
of  broken  crockery  of  various 
colors. 

One  funny  thing  here  is 
the  "  milk  wagons,"  —  noth- 
ing but  burros  with  a  big 
milk-can  held  hi  a  kind  of 
sack  on  either  side  ! 

Uncle     Lemuel     said    it 

wasn't  warm  enough  in  the 

capital  for  bim,  and  he  decided  to  go  down  into  the  hot  country, 

for  a  stay.     The  hotels  are  all  crowded  down  in  the  tierra  caliente 

resorts  now  with  people  getting  away  from  La  Grippe  in  the  capitivl, 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    I.AND-YACHT. 


183 


J^H^" 


5%^ 


and  we  couldii  't  bring  the  Ariadne  down  licit'  tor  tlie  line  is  narrow 
gnage.      Don  Manuel  Andrade  told  uncle  Lemuel  of  a  friend  of  his 
who  had  a  sugar  haeienda,  or  plantation,  near  Cuautla.      Pronounce 
that    Kwoutki.     His 
friend  was  in  Europe, 
and  it  eould  he  easily 
arranged  with  the  ad- 
mmisirador,  or  man- 
ager, to  go  there  and 
live  for  a  month  or  so. 
While  the  rest  oi  us 
were    sightseeing,  -.. 

Eliot  and  Nacho  ran 

down  to  look  the  place  over,  and  they  reported  enthusiastically  about 
it  when  they  came  back.  So  Uncle  Lemuel  engaged  one  of  the  pri- 
vate cars  of  the  Interoceanic  Railway  to  bring  us  down.  He  said 
that  the  transfer  from  the  Ariadne  to  the  Delfin  was  like  that  from 
a  deep-draught  yacht  to  a  light-draught  one,  for  navigation  in  the 
shallow  waters  was  represented  by  a  narrow-guage  line.  We  couldn't 
get  a  special  train,  because  all  the  engines  were  busy  in  construction 
work,  and  so  we  had  to  come  by  the  regular,  which  was  a  mixed 
train,  and  loafed  along  at  the  stations  to  load  and  unload  freight. 
But  it  was  a  mighty  interesting  trip  all  the  same.  Between  two 
places,  called  Amecameca  and  Ozumba  we  went  right  close  to  the 
foot  of  the  big  volcanoes,  so  we  could  see  the  cascades  running  down 
from  the  melting  snow  over  the  rocks  on  the  rugged  slopes  of 
Ixtaccihuatl.  It  was  like  the  pictures  of  the  Alps.  There  were 
pines  and  cedars  all  around  us,  and  the  houses  had  roofs  just  like 


184  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

those  in  Switzerland,  made  of  shingles  held  down  with  heavy  stones. 

Then  while  we  were  up  in  the  thin  mountain  air  we  came  to  a 
plaee  Avhere  we  could  see  way  oft'  through  the  gaps  down  into  the 
hot  country,  sloping  down  and  away  and  melting  into  the  hlue  dis- 
tance towards  the  Pacific  coast.  We  coidd  see  the  sugar-cane  in 
great  stretches  of  light  green,  with  brown  land  all  around,  and  it 
seemed  like  lakes.  They  were  at  levels  half  a  mile  and  more  below 
where  we  were,  and  an  island  of  dark  green  ti-ees  in  the  midst  of 
one  of  these  lakes  of  sugar-cane  was  pointed  out  as  Cuautla,  where 
we  should  not  arrive  for  two  hours  yet. 

It  took  lots  of  curves  to  get  down  so  far.  The  slope  was  mostly 
bare  open  fields,  dry  and  brown,  and  from  the  train  we  coidd  see 
the  track  at  a  good  many  places  far  ahead  of  us,  as  it  went  squirm- 
ing down  into  the  valley,  something  like  a  rope  that  has  been  thrown 
down  on  the  ground  and  left  just  as  it  fell.  The  train  continually 
changed  its  direction  so  that  we  got  views  on  every  side  from  one 
Avindow,  and  they  were  splendid  views  too,  with  Popocatepetl  grow- 
ing higher  and  higher  above  us  as  we  went  lower  and  lower.  In  one 
place  the  valley  was  bounded  by  a  line  of  steep,  high  cliffs  with  rug- 
ged tops  that  looked  like  architecture,  and  one  point  looked 
exactly  like  a  big  castle  with  a  square  tower,  that  was  way  below  us 
when  we  first  saw  it,  and  looming  way  above  us  at  last.  The  train, 
going  every  which  way,  seemed  as  if  it  was  waltzing,  and  the  girls 
said  it  almost  made  them  dizzy. 

At  a  station  named  Nepantla  we  waited  a  long  time  for  the  up 
train  to  come  along  and  pass  us.  The  station  building  was  real  in- 
teresting and  was  covered  Avith  scalloped  red  tiles  and  had  a  nice 
Hower-garden.  The    agent    was  a     pleasant  old    Spaniard  —  a 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAXP-YACHT.  185 

Gathnpin,  Pablo  called  him,  which  is  what  the  Mexicans  call  tlie 
Spaniards  —  and  the  conductor  was  a  Gachupin  too.  Thea<>ent  had 
some  of  the  windows  full  of  canaries  and  other  birds,  each  window 
making-  a  big  cage  by  closing  up  with  wire  netting  the  space  made 
by  the  thick  adobe  walls,  giving  the  birds  plenty  of  room  to  fly 
round  in.  The  girls  admired  his  garden  and  he  said  he  would  esteem 
it  a  favor  if  we  would  go  in  and  look  about  and  pick  all  the  flowers 
we  liked. 

The  engineer  of  our  train  was  an  American  and  Eliot  and  I  were 
talking  with  him  and  he  was  awfidly  glad  to  get  some  home  news- 
papers we  had  with  us,  when  the  other  train  came  along.  Hitched 
on  behind  all  the  freight-cars,  the  last  thing  in  the  rear,  there  was 
a  smashed-up  engine  that  had  been  ditched  the  day  before  on  the 
new  part  of  the  line,  with  cab  smashed  oil',  smokestack  carried  away, 
and  pretty  well  bunged  up  where  she  had  rolled  over.  Our  engineer 
looked  at  her  and  said  that  was  no  way  to  carry  an  engine  like  that, 
for  she  hadn't  any  tender  and  so  was  without  a  brake,  and  if  the 
coupling  should  give  way  nothing  could  stop  her  running  back  down 
hUl.  We  waited  a  few  minutes  for  orders,  after  that  train  had  gone 
along  up,  and  we  watched  it  crawl  slowly  up  the  grade  that  went 
along  the  steep  side  of  the  gorge,  until  it  disappeared  around  a 
point.  Our  whistle  had  just  blown  for  us  to  start  and  we  were  all 
on  the  train  —  us  fellows  standing  on  the  rear  platform.  All  of  a 
sudden  we  heard  a  noise  up  the  track,  and  we  saw  that  smashed 
engine  come  tearing  down  the  grade  like  mad,  all  by  herself,  for  she 
had  broken  loose  !  We  rushed  inside  and  told  everybody  to  run  for 
their  lives,  and  everybody  got  out  in  a  hurry,  scared  half  to  death, 
and  put   for  the  station.     All   the  rest  of   the  passengers   heard   us 


186  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

yelling  and  everybodj^  came  piling  out.  Our  train  was  on  the  main 
line  and  I  thought  it  would  be  stove  all  to  flinders,  but  the  s\vitch- 
man  who  had  thrown  back  the  switch  after  that  train  had  passed  off 
the  siding  was  still  near  by  and  saw  the  engme  coming,  and  he  had 
presence  of  mind  enough  to  run  and  throw  off  the  switch  so  the  run- 
away might  pass  to  one  side.  But  even  then  there  was  danger  that 
it  might  jump  the  switch,  and  I  would  not  have  given  much  for  our 
baggage.  But  before  the  engine  got  so  far  as  a  high  iron  bridge 
just  above  the  station,  it  was  going  so  fast  that  it  could  not  keep 
the  track  at  a  curve  and  it  jumped  the  rails  and  dove  down  the  em- 
bankment like  a  shot,  pitching  heels  over  head,  kicking  up  the  dust 
in  a  big  cloud,  making  the  stones  rattle  down  after  it  in  a  shower, 
going  crash-rickety-bang  !  and  at  last  bringing  up  with  a  tremendous 
whack  on  the  bare  rocks  at  the  bottom  of  the  gorge  where  the 
stream  tears  along  in  the  rainy  season.  I  tell  you  I  shook  like  the 
Brynhilda's  mainsail  coming  round  in  the  wind,  and  Pablo  Avas  white 
as  a  ghost  and  he  said  I  was  like  an  espanto,  which  is  the  same  thing 
as  a  ghost.  Florence  fainted  and  everybody  was  fearfully  excited, 
except  uncle  Lemuel,  who  took  it  as  cool  as  a  cucumber.  We  went 
and  looked  over  the  edge  at  the  engine  and  there  wasn't  much  left 
after  her  second  wreck,  except  the  boiler,  whidi  wasn't  broken, 
although  I  should  think  it  would  have  smashed  all  to  bits  against  that 
hard  rock.  Eliot  says  that  a  cylinder  is  one  of  the  strongest 
possible  pieces  of  construction  and  very  hard  to  break.  But  there 
was  nothing  to  be  seen  of  the  eight  driving-wheels  except  some 
scattered  pieces  of  broken  iron. 

When  we  started,  the  air  kept  growing  warmer  and  heavier,  and 
at  last  when  Ave  began  to  run  on  a  straight  trade  for  the  first  time 


THE    CKUISE    OF   A    LAND-YACHT. 


18Y 


since  the  summit  there  was  tall  sugar-cane  and  green  grass  and  lots 
of  clear  running  water  on  both  sides  of  us,  and  it  was  like  July. 
That  was  at  Cuautla,  and  we  ran  up  a  "  Y  "  to  a  station  that  was 
made  out  of  an  old  convent,  with  domes  and  towers  and  a  carved 
stone  front,  and  what  was  once  the  chapel  was  piled  full  of  freight. 


^z± 


u^iKA.^Sill'^'f 


RAILWAY   STATION   AT    Cl'AtTTLA. 


It  is  quite  a  city,  but  you  can  hardly  see  anything  of  it  until  you  get 
into  it,  there  are  so  many  big  trees,  and  most  of  the  streets,  except 
in  the  centre  where  the  buildings  are  solid,  are  shady  lanes  with 
thatched   huts,  and   brooks  of  water  running  round    nearly  every- 


188 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


■where.  There  are  lots  of  flowers  on  all  sides,  and  pahns,  and 
bananas,  and  any  quantity  of  fruit-trees  of  many  kinds,  with  oranges 
and  limes,  but  no  lemons,  except  sweet  lemons  that  haven't  any  taste 
to  speak  of,  but  smell  fine  enough  to  make  up  for  it.  They  call 
limes  lemons  in  Mexico,  and  lemons  limes ;  that  is,  Jiviones  and 
linias. 

A  nice  mule-team  was  waiting  from  San  Andres,  with  saddle- 
horses  for  several  of  us.  I  was  glad  enough  to  see  Bayito  among 
them,  for  uncle  Lemuel  had  had  him  engaged  and  sent  on  ahead,  so 
as  to  surprise  me.  Pablo's  and  Nacho's  horses  were  there  too.  It 
was  three  o'clock  when  we  left  Cuautla, 
and  sunset  when  we  reached  San  An- 
dres, which  is  lower  down  the  valley, 
and  stUl  more  tropical.  It  was  fine 
coming  horseback,  with  lots  of  strange 
things  to  see  every  minute.  But  for 
Uncle  Lemuel  and  Aunt  Maddie,  in 
the  carriage,  the  road  was  pretty  rough 
in  many  places.  The  scenery  is  mag- 
nificent here,  with  the  mountains  aU 
around  in  all  sorts  of  shapes,  and  old 
"  Popc) "  king  of  tliem  all  in  plain  sight  looming  up  tremendously  high 
and  looking  only  a  few  miles  away.  When  we  arrived  he  was  lit  up 
with  the  afterglow,  with  his  snowy  top  all  rose-color  against  a  sky  of 

deep  violet. 

;'reat  sugar 
rooms,  very 
or,  though. 


Everything  is  mighty  interesting  here.  It  i? 
hacienda,  and  the  house  is  like  a  palace  in  size,  with 
plain,  but  neat  as  wax.     There  is  a  nice  piano  in  tlu 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  189 

and  the  floors  are  of  red  brick  tile.  Nobody  cares  for  inside  show 
here,  in  a  eliniate  Hke  this,  where  yon  can  sit  outdoors  in  the  evening 
all  through  the  winter.  The  corridors  are  the  real  parlors,  and  we 
sit  there  nearly  all  the  time  when  we  are  around  the  house.  There 
is  a  big  flower-garden,  and  a  great  orchard  A\4tli  all  sorts  of  fruit 
that  grow  here,  and  the  trees  are  full  of  birds  with  flocks  of  little  green 
parrots  that  chatter  like  fun,  noisier  than  English  sparrows,  for  they 
seem  to  be  talking  to  each  otlier.  A  fine  river  runs  close  by  and 
seems  just  like  one  of  the  streams  at  the  White  Mountains  except 
for  the  thicket  of  bananas  along  the  banks,  and  there's  good  fishing 
in  it. 

Don  Alberto  Peralta  is  the  admuiistrador  of  the  place,  the  gen- 
eral manager,  and  he's  a  real  Castilian  gentleman,  —  a  model  of 
poUteness,  and  he  runs  the  big  plantation  in  a  live  business  way. 
His  family  is  away,  so  he  has  had  the  house  all  to  himself,  and  he  is 
glad  enough  to  have  our  company.  He  sits  at  the  head  of  the  table, 
and  the  meals  are  just  fine.  He  doesn't  know  English,  and  when 
there's  any  joking  going  on  among  us  he  wants  to  know  what  it  is 
aU  about,  and  Eliot  and  Pablo  explain  it  to  him.  Sometimes  he 
can't  see  anything  funny  in  it  and  looks  perplexed,  for  it  is  diffieidt 
to  explain  some  jokes  in  another  language,  you  know,  but  others  he 
sees  the  point  of  quick  as  lightning  and  then  you  bet  he  laughs! 
Then  he  tells  some  Spanish  joke  that  hys  to  be  translated  to  us.  We 
are  all  learning  Spanish  pretty  well,  and  I  mean  to  keep  it  up  at  the 
Tech,  for  it  is  going  to  be  valuable  for  an  electrical  engineer  where 
there  is  such  a  field  as  there  is  in  Spanish-America. 

Everything  goes  like  clock-work  about  the  house  and  place. 
The  servants  are  all  men  and  boys,  and  thev  glide  around  still  as 


190 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND— YACHT. 


shadows,  dressed  in  nothing  but  a  loose  cotton  shii-t  and  drawers, 
always  fresh  and  white  —  quite  different  from  in  the  Citj'  of  Mexico 
where  they  seem  to  wear  the  same  things  untU  they  drop  off.  Down 
here  in  the  hot  country  it  is  a  necessity,  almost,  for  them  to  bathe 
every  day,  and  so  they  get  the  habit  of  keepmg  clean.  The  sugar- 
mill  joins  onto  the 
wing  of  the  house, 
making  three  sides 
of  a  large  square  aU 
together.  It  is  nm 
by  power  from  the 
river,  and  is  Inisy  as 
a  bee-hive,  with  the 
laborers  coming  and 
going  all  the  tune, 
bringing  in  big  bun- 
dles of  cane  to  lie  crushed  in  the  imjjic/w,  as  they  call  it,  where  the 
juice  runs  out  in  a  steady  stream  and  a  glass  full  of  it  tastes  kind 
of  nice  once  in  a  while.  They  even  refine  the  sugar  here  into  nice 
white  loaves.  The  laborers  live  in  a  village  by  themselves  just  be- 
yond the  hifcrfd,  or  orchard,  and  they  go  to  church  in  a  chapel 
onto   the   other   side    of   the    h()us(>. 


]omni< 


beautiful  building 


built  over 


hundred 


big  enough  for  a  city  church,  and  it  w; 
and  fifty  years  ago. 

Pablo  and  Nacho  came  with  us  by  special  invitation  of  Uncle 
Lemuel,  and  it  makes  it  real  jolly  that  tbcy  arc  licrc  ;  it  helps  u^ 
along  with  our  Spanish,  and  they  teach  us  Mexican  songs  and  wc  all 
sit  and  sin"-  in  the  corridor  in  the  moonlight,  and   have  music  ol 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  191 

guitars  and  banjos  beside.  Pablo  had  an  atta*  k  of  the  Grippe  just 
before  we  came  down,  and  his  father  thought  he  had  l)etter  leave 
school  for  a  while  and  get  the  benefit  of  the  change  of  air.  Nacho 
came  down  because  he  thought  he  might  have  the  Grippe  if  he  staid 
in  the  capital.  But  between  us  the  truth  is  he  has  taken  a  great  liking 
to  cousin  Mabel,  and  she  seems  to  like  him  just  as  well,  for  the  two 
are  together  pretty  nearly  all  the  time.  Pablo  and  I  arc  great 
friends,  and  we  all  three  shall  be,  Dan,  for  I  know  you  can't  help 
liking  him  when  he  comes  to  Boston  to  enter  the  Tech  next  fall. 
He  will  come  in  August  with  liis  father,  and,  the  very  first  thing,  we 
will  break  him  in  for  the  salt  water  by  a  cruise  on  the  Brynhilda. 
He  has  never  seen  the  ocean  yet.  You  couldn't  tell  him  from  an 
American  boy  by  his  looks. 

We  take  long  rides  all  through  the  country,  and  see  lots  of 
strange  things.  The  jjcople  mostly  live;  in  thatched  huts  made  o£ 
cane  or  reeds,  and  the  children  usually  don't  wear  so  much  as  a  single 
rag.  A  good  many  of  their  parents  don't  wear  much  more,  and 
clothing  can't  be  a  very  heavy  item  of  expense  in  this  part  of  the 
world.  A  considerable  part  of  the  day  we  fellows  have  no  use  for 
it  ourselves,  for  there  is  a  large  swunming-tank  in  the  liiiertd  with 
water  running  in  from  the  river  all  the  time,  and  orange-trees  shading 
it  at  one  end,  where  there  is  a  terrace  paved  with  tiles  and  a  bench 
of  smooth  stone  for  resting.  We  spend  a  couple  of  hours  or  so  there 
every  day. 

Once  in  a  while  we  go  fishing  in  the  river,  but  we  haven't  done 
any  hunting,  for  none  of  us  like  to  "go  round  killing  things."  We 
caught  an  armadillo  one  evening  though,  down  near  tiie  river,  and 
I  am  going  to  try  to  bring  him  home  for  a  pet.     It's  the  funniest 


192  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

looking  thing-,  with  a  thick  shell,  like  jjlate-armor,  and  when  we 
caught  him  he  rolled  himself  up  into  a  ball,  wliich  it  would  be  pretty 
hard  for  any  other  animal  to  bite  through.  '  The  girls  were  scared 
of  it  and  shrieked  when  we  offered  to  put  him  in  their  laps,  but  he 
is  perfectly  harmless  and  gentle,  for  he  hasn't  any  teeth.  They  say 
it's  first-class  eating,  and  the  people  here  call  it  a  great  delicacy. 
Don  Alberto  offered  to  get  up  an  armadillo  dinner,  but  I  for  one 
coiddn't  stomach  it,  it  looks  too  much  like  a  reptile,  although  it  is 
really  a  mamnuil.  I  wonder  if  they  serve  it  roasted  in  the  shell ! 
There  is  a  reptUe  here  that  they  do  eat,  and  that  is  an  iguana,  a 
great  fat  kind  of  lizard.  I'd  rather  eat  armadillo  than  that.  Other 
queer  things  that  they  eat  around  the  City  of  Mexico  are  mosquitos' 
eggs,  from  around  the  lakes,  and  maguey  worms,  great  white  grub- 
like things  that  they  find  in  the  leaves  of  the  pulque  maguey.  Both 
uncle  Lemuel  and  Eliot  have  eaten  them,  fried  and  raw,  and  they  say 
they  are  finer  than  oysters,  but  you  couldn't  hire  me  to  touch  them. 

I  thought  I'd  find  Mexico  fuU  of  snakes,  and  they  say  there  are 
some,  but  I  haven't  seen  one  yet,  so  they  can't  be  yery  plenty.  One 
thing  I'm  disappomted  in,  and  that  is  I  hoped  to  see  some  wild 
monkeys,  but  there  are  n't  any  round  here  and  they  tell  me  they  are 
not  to  be  found  till  much  nearer  the  coast,  where  there  are  forests. 
Tame  ones  are  quite  plenty  for  pets  in  the  City  of  Mexico,  and  they 
are  amusing  fellows.  It  is  fun  to  see  them  on  the  edge  of  a  balcony 
where  they  are  chained  ;  they  will  give  a  jump,  catching  hold  with 
the  end  of  their  tails  and  dangling  there.  About  all  the  iVmerican 
species  have  tails  of  that  kind. 

There  are  lots  of  things  I  want  to  tell  you  aI)out.  but  1  haven't 
time  and  must  wait  till  I  get  home.     I  am  keejjing  up  tlic  log-liook 


THK    f'KlTISK    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


193 


vou  "ave  me  pretty  well  and  have  taken  lots  of  instantaneous  photos, 
so  1  shall  be  able  to  give  you  a  fair  idea  of  the  voyage  of  the  Ariadne. 
We  shall  stay  here  till  early  in  March  and  then  return  to  the  capital 
for  a  few  days,  after  which  we  shall  travel  around  through  the 
country. 

Write  me  some  more  about  the  Tech  and  how  you  are  getting 
along  there.  When  did  you  go  over  to  the  Point  last  to  see  the 
Brynhilda  ?  I'll  tell  you  a  good  Mexican  name  for  a  yacht : 
"  Malinchc,"  the  name  oi'  the  Aztec  woman  that  Cortes  loved.  But 
the  trouble  with  lots  of  these  foreign  names  for  yachts  is  that  people 
don't  pronounce  them  riglit.  The  "  Gitana,"  you  know,  for  example, 
is  a  Spanisli  name,  but  the  G  is  pronounced  like  H  breathed  hard, 
and  the  word,  which  means  G}^)sey,  sounds  like  this  :  "  He-tah-na." 

Eememl)cr  me  to  all  the  fellows. 

Yours  as  ever, 

Harry  Marsden. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

EXTRACTS    FROM    THE    LOG    OF    THE    ARIADNE. 

City  of  Mexico,  Maicli  9,  1890. 

TJERE  we  are  back  on  the  Ariadne,  and  it  seems  like  home, 
although  we  hated  to  come  away  from  San  Andres,  where  it 
seemed  like  home,  too.  In  the  capital  a  week,  now;  more  sight- 
seeing, rides  every  morning  with  the  Jerseys  and  young  Andrades, 
Spanish  opera  one  night,  dinners  wth  friends  other  nights  —  Jerseys, 
Andrades,  at  United  States  Minister  Ryan's  to  lunch,  and  two  dinners 
to  friends  on  board  the  "  yacht "  —  regular  round  of  festivities. 
To-morrow  we  "  steam  out  of  port"  for  a  trip  to  Cordova  and  back, 
down  on  the  Perrocarril  Mexicano,  or  Mexican  Railway,  the  first  line 
built  in  the  country,  from  here  to  Vera  Cruz.  Or  rather,  the  Ariadne 
goes  without  us  as  far  as  Puebla,  and  Uncle  Lemuel  lias  chartered  the 
"light-draught"  Delfin  again,  to  take  us  over  on  the  new  narrow- 
guage  line,  the  Interoceanic,  so  as  to  get  rid  of  the  dust  on  the  Vera 
Cruz  line,  that  section  of  it  being  the  dustiest  railroad  in  the  world, 
they  say.  The  Interoceanit;  used  to  be  called  the  "  FerrocarrU  Intei- 
oceanico  de  Acapulco,  Morelos,  Mexico,  Irolo  y  Vera  Cruz,"  and  tlie 
initials  on  the  freight-cars  were  "  F.  C.  I.  de  A.  M.  M.  I.  y  V.  ('.." 
which  beats  the  "  Big  Four  !  "  They  are  building  it  from  ocean 
to  ocean  now,  and  it's  going  to  be  a  great  system. 

rH('hl<t,  March  10,  1890. —  We  met  tlie   Ariadne  hciv  and  are 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  195 

on  board  again.  It  was  fine  scenery  coming-  over,  around  to  the 
east  o£  Lake  Texcoco,  through  the  great  pulque  region  where  the 
big  maguey  jdants  cover  the  plains  and  hills  in  regular  geometric 
patterns,  being  planted  so  as  to  form  straight  lines  in  sevend  direc- 
tions. We  saw  the  famous  great  prehistoric  pyramids  of  Teotihuacan, 
with  other  ancient  ruins  all  around,  in  the  midst  of  a  wide  valley, 
and  then  we  crossed  over  the  wild  outlying  range  of  the  great  vol- 
canoes, which  were  abnost  constantly  in  sight,  looming  up  over  the 
pine-covered  mountains  all  around  lis.  A  little  before  reaching 
Puebla  we  saw  the  other  famous  pyramid,  that  of  Cholula,  which 
has  a  beautiful  chapel  on  top  of  it.  We  ran  close  to,  and  the  city 
of  Chohda  was  bristling  Avith  chiu-ches,  just  like  Puebla,  Avhich  is 
only  a  short  distance  beyond.  This  is  a  beautiful  city,  large  and 
busy,  over  one  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  they  say,  with  much 
manufacturing,  and  many  cotton  mills  along  the  river,  and  of  them 
the  first  one  built  in  the  new  world.  There  is  a  splendid  great 
cathedral.  The  streets  are  so  clean  you  coidd  almost  roll  over  in 
them  without  getting  dirty,  and  the  style  of  building  is  quite 
pecvdiar  to  the  place  —  many  of  the  houses  being  covered  with 
tiles  in  all  sorts  of  fancy  patterns,  and  variegated  in  color.  It 
is  a  Moorish  idea,  they  say.  Here  is  where  they  make  the 
colored  glazed  tiles  that  are  used  to  cover  church  domes  in  many 
parts  of  Mexico,  and  most  of  the  domes  here  are  ornamented  that 
way.  The  people  here  are  called  Pohlanos  ;  and  the  Poblanas,  the 
Puebla  women,  of  the  peon  class,  have  a  beautiful  costume  very  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  other  parts  of  Mexico.  They  wear  their  rebozos 
in  a  kind  of  jaunty  way,  sort  of  turban-like,  and  their  dresses  are 
richlv  embroidered.     The  volcanoes  are  closer  than   to  the  Citv  of 


196  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

Mexico,  and   the   grand   peak   of   Malinche   seems  almost   within  a 
stone's  throw  of  the  city. 

City  of  Mexico,  March  13.  —  Left  Puebla  morning  of  10th  in 
the  Ariadne  and  jomed  the  main  line  of  the  Mexican  Railway  at 
Apizaco ;  curious  old-fashioned-looking  train  —  good  American  loco- 
motive, but  no  air-brakes  nor  Miller  platforms.  At  place  called 
Esperanza,  which  means  hope,  was  a  tramway  line  that  went  off  a 
long  ways  into  the  country,  with  regular  street-cars  drawn  by  mules. 
Along  here  we  had  the  first  view  of  Mount  Orizaba  —  a  glorious 
great  snow-covered  volcano  very  much  Uke  Popocatepetl,  only  a  Uttle 
more  dome-shaped.  Here  we  changed  locomotives,  and  took  on  a 
"  Fairhe,"  a  double-ender,  like  two  engines  joined  in  one,  with  the 
cab  in  the  middle.  The  "  Fairlies  "  are  made  expressly  for 
heavy  grades  like  those  of  this  line ;  the  steepest  of  any  railroad  in 
America.  At  a  place  called  Boca  del  Monte,  seven  thousand  nine 
hundred  feet  above  the  sea,  we  went  through  a  tunnel  and  found 
ourselves  at  the  very  edge  of  the  high  table-land.  Wonderful 
views !  We  were  up  among  the  pines  and  could  look  right  down 
into  gorgeous  tropical  scenery.  We  ran  along  the  edge  of  a  preci- 
pice with  the  beautifid  valley  of  Maltrata  nearly  three  thousand  feet 
beloAV,  and  could  look  almost  straight  down  into  the  town  of  Maltrata, 
with  the  station  which  was  ten  miles  ahead  of  us  by  rail !  Scenery 
indescribably  grand,  with  commingling  of  tropical  and  temperate- 
zone  vegetation,  and  snowy  summit  of  Orizaba  above  dark,  pine-clad 
slopes.  Vegetation  much  richer  on  Gulf  slope  than  on  Pacific  slope, 
as  in  Cuautla  valley,  because  atmosphere  is  dry  there  and  moist  here. 
Stopped  over  night  at  Orizaba ;  beautiful  tropical  city,  full  of  rich 
vegetation. 


lilk_ 


^.^ 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  199 

Next  day  went  to  C(5rclova  and  back,  through  scenery  equally 
rich  and  beautiful,  with  sharp  curves  and  steep  grades  descending 
from  valley  to  valley,  as  before.  Crossed  great  bridge  of  Metlac,  on 
a  curve ;  bridge  was  washed  away  last  year.  C()rdova  is  centre  of 
coffee,  sugar,  and  tobacco  region,  and  is  pretty  city.  Saw  many 
Indians  from  surrounding  villages  ;  costumes  differed  according:  to 
locality  they  came  from.  Weather  hot  and  steamy,  but  very  com- 
fortable on  board  Ariadne.  Even  more  interesting  climbing  up  to 
tal)le-lan(l  than  going  down  ;  seems  as  if  I  could  never  get  tired 
of  it. 

JMoreUa,  IJstado  (h  Mlchoanm,  March  20,  189(3.  —  Uncle 
Lemuel  chartered  "  light-draught  yacht "  Delfin  from  Interoceanic 
again,  to  come  on  this  trip  over  Mexican  National,  narrow-gauge  — 
Compania  Camino  de  Fierro  Nacional  Mexicana,  as  they  call  the 
company  now.  Another  lot  of  wonderful  scenery  on  the  way  here. 
Climbed  straight  up  out  of  VaUey  of  Mexico  to  height  of  ten 
thousand  feet  above  sea  at  Salazar,  where  it  seemed  like  being  in 
Maine  or  New  Hampshire,  and  the  air  was  chilly  like  a  late  October 
mornuig.  Crossing  Sierra  de  la  Cruz  here,  came  down  into  broad 
upland  valley  of  Toluca,  with  the  fourth  of  the  great  snow-clad 
mountains  of  Mexico  rising  out  of  it  —  the  Nevado  de  Toluca,  an 
extinct  volcano  with  a  lake  in  its  crater.  They  say  the  lake  never 
freezes,  although  so  high.  Stopped  over  a  day  at  Toluca,  capital  of 
State  of  Mexico.  A  beautiful  clean  city,  weather  always  cool,  for  it 
is  over  a  thousand  feet  higher  than  the  City  of  Mexico.  Handsome 
great  market-house,  with  long  vistas  between  massiv(>  stone  cohiimis, 
richly  decorated.  At  Acambaro,  down  in  a  warm  country  again, 
took  the  branch  line  for  Morelia,  passing  along  shores  of  beautiful 


200 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAKD-YACHT. 


Lake  Cuitzeo,  a  great  sheet  of  water  with  an  arehipelag'O  of  moiin- 
tahious  islands. 

Morelia  is  the  favorite  city  of  Mexico  for  Uncle  Lemuel,  as  it  is 

for  Mr.  Church,  who  first  told  him  about  it.     Its  climate  is  perfect, 

neither  too  warm  nor  too  cold,  and  the  place  is  full 

of  beauty  of  all  kinds.     The  cathedral  has  the 


most  l)eautiful  arcliitceture  of  any  in  Mexico.  Mabel  says  she  is 
sure  that  the  Alanteda  must  be  an  enchanted  g-arden,  with  a  magic 
palace  and  a  sleeping  princess  hidden  in  its  midst.     Morelia  is  the 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


201 


capital  of  the  State  of  Michoacan,  and  used  to  be  called  Valladolid, 
after  the  Spanish  city,  but  was  {^hanged  to  Morelia  in  honor  of  the 
patriot  priest  Morelos,  who  was  born  here  and  who  succeeded  Hidalgo 
as  the  leader  of  the  revolution  against  Spain.  Iturbide,  who  gained 
Mexico  her  independence,  and  was  first  dictator  and  then  emperor,  was- 
also  from  this  city,  and  so  Morelia  is  called  "the  mother  of  patriots." 


OREl.IA    MARKET-PLACt 


Lake  Pdtzmaro,  March  27,  1890.  —  We  came  by  special  train 
six  days  ago  and  are  stopping  at  a  pleasant  hotel  close  beside  the 
lake,  made  for  a  pleasure-resort  out  of  the  great  house  of  an  hacienda. 
It  is  one  of  the  healthiest  and  most  beautiful  parts  of  Mexico.  The 
lake  is  seven  thousand  feet  above  the  ser,  and  the  bracing  air  is. 


202  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

sweet  with  the  smell  of  the  pines  on  the  nionntains  aU  aronncl  the 
lake.  It  is  called  the  most  beautiful  of  the  three  large  sheets  of 
water  that  give  this  part  of  the  country  the  name  of  "  the  lake 
re<>-ion  of  Mexico,"  the  other  two  being  Lakes  Chapala  and  Cuitzeo. 
Chapala  is  the  largest  of  all,  but  Patzucaro  is  by  no  means  small, 
being  as  much  as  twenty  miles  long  by  ten  wide.  It  is  full  of  beauti- 
ful islands ;  several  of  them  have  fishermen's  villages  on  them,  and 
the  queer-shaped  nets  of  fishermen,  put  up  to  dry,  look  something 
like  monstrous  butterflies.  The  water  of  the  lake  is  clear  as  crystal ; 
full  of  fine  fish  and  covered  with  wild  fowl,  some  of  which  have  goi- 
geous  plumage.  The  lake  is  rising  in  height,  and  the  captain  of  the 
curious  little  steamer  that  runs  here  says  that  the  most  troublesome 
obstacles  to  navigation  near  the  shore  are  the  submerged  stone  Avails. 
There  is  no  stream  flowing  out  of  the  lake,  but  there  is  said  to  be 
an  underground  outlet  somewhere,  and  it  is  believed  that  the  reason 
why  the  lake  is  rising  is  that  the  outlet  was  stopped  up  by  a  severe 
earthcpiake  a  few  years  ago.  Others  say  that  there  never  Avas  any 
outlet,  and  the  reason  the  lake  is  rising  is  that  there  happens  to  be 
just  now  a  period,  or  cycle,  of  greater  rainfall  than  the  average. 
But  there  is  one  thing  that  makes  it  certain  that  there  must  have 
been  a  subterranean  outlet,  and  that  is,  that  the  water  oi  the  lake  is 
fresh  ;  if  there  were  no  outlet  it  Avould  be  salt,  for  tliat  is  the  case 
everywhere  with  such  lakes. 

The  City  of  Piitzcuaro  is  only  a  little  ways  south  of  Iuti'.  hack 
from  the  lake,  among  the  hills,  with  queer,  narrow  streets  and  very 
interesting.  We  are  having  a  fine  tiuie  here  ;  riding  around  tlie 
country,  boating,  fishing,  swinnning,  and  making  excursions  on  the 
lake  in  the  steamer,  which  Uncle  Lemuel  chartered  for  ten  dollars  a 


THK    CUUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  203 

dav.  It  is  curious  that  the  Indians  do  not  have  sails  to  their  craft ; 
they  Iiave  hii;'  dugouts  and  use  paddles  and  poles,  but  never  knew 
anything  ahout  sails  until  one  of  the  American  railroad  men  here, 
who  came  from  the  coast  of  Maine,  rigged  up  a  boat  which  the 
Indians  thought  as  wonderful  as  the  steamboat.  I  have  been  taking- 
Pablo  out  in  it  considerably,  and  it  made  me  feel  like  being  at  home 
to  have  sheet  and  tiller  in  my  hands  once  more. 

Yesterday  we  all  went  on  the  steamer  down  the  lake  to  the 
ancient  Indian  town  of  Tzintzuntzan,  which,  in  tlie  early  days  of  the 
Conquest  was  one  of  the  chief  places  in  the  country.  They  say  the 
name  means  "  humming-bird,"  and  it  is  a  sort  of  imitation  of  the 
noise  made  by  the  bird.  There  is  an  old  church  there,  with  its  yard 
full  of  some  of  the  largest  and  most  beautiful  old  olive  trees  that 
Uncle  Lemuel  ever  saw ;  not  surpassed,  he  says,  even  in  the  Holy 
Land.  In  the  church  there  are  two  old  pagan  relics  near  the  altar ; 
two  old  stone  images  of  moxintain  lions,  probably  used  as  idols  in 
the  ancient  days,  and  they  say  that  the  Indians  hold  them  as  sacred 
to-day  as  any  of  the  Christian  emblems  in  the  church,  for  they  are 
stiU  fully  half  pagans.  In  the  sacristy  there  is  one  of  the  finest 
paintings  in  all  America,  pronounced  a  genuine  Titian,  and  repre- 
senting the  "  Entombment  of  the  Savioiu'."  It  was  given  to  the 
church  by  the  King  of  Spain,  and  although  the  Indians  have  no  idea 
of  its  artistic  value  they  hold  it  so  sacred  that  no  money  could  in- 
duce them  to  part  with  it.  Mr.  Churcli  was  the  first  American  to 
discover  it  here,  and  make  it  known.  Charles  Dudley  Warner  was 
the  first  to  describe  it  and  since  then  considerable  has  been  written 
about  it  by  tourists. 

City  of  Mexico,   April  7,  1890.  —  We   have  been  on   the  go  so 


204 


THE    CRUISK    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


imifh  I  have  only  just  found  time  to  write 
up  my  log.  We  got  back  here  March  30 
and  that  evening  took  the  night  train  up  the 
Central  in  the  Ariadne,  reaching  Irapuato  in 
the  morning  and  from  there  over  the  Guada- 
lajara Division  all  day  till  4:45  in  the  after- 
noon, passing  close  by  Lake  Chapala  at 
Ocatlan,  but  seeing  nothing  of  it,  for  it  lay 
out  of  sioht 


beyond  the 
great  stone  bridge  crossing  the 
head  of  the  Rio  Grande,  or  Rio 
Santiago,  as  the  Lerma  is  called 
after  it  leaves  the  lake.  It  is  a 
large  river  and  we  ran  beside  it  a 
considerable  distance.  Guadala- 
jara is  a  fine  city,  and  the  second 
great  centre  in  Mexico  —  a  genu- 
ine   capi- 


tal.     We 

all  liked  it  immensely,  although  not  so 
ancient-looking  as  it  really  is,  they  fixed 
and  painted  it  up  so  freshly  to  celebrate 
the  finishing  of  the  railroad  something  over 
a  year  ago.  It  is  the  capital  of  the  groat 
State  of  Jalisco,  and  is  the  best  run  city 
in  Mexico ;  very  neat,  no  beggars  allowed 
anywhere,  fine  schools  and  other  publii'  in- 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


205 


stitutions,  one  of  the  finest  and  largest  theatres  in  the  world,  and 
dogs  all  licensed  just  like  at  home.  '  Only  five  thousand  feet  above 
the  sea,  and  climate  fine.  But  the  most  wonderful  thing  around  Avas 
the  great  Barranca  de  Portillo,  the  deep  gorge  of  the  Rio  Santiago, 
only  five  or  six  niUes  out  of  town.  We  all  went  down  into  it,  for 
Mr.  Blake,  the  pleasant  American  civil  engineer  who  lives  in  Guada- 
lajara, told  us  so  much  about  it  that  Uncle  Lemuel  and  Aunt  Maddie 
said  they  were  bound  to  make  the  trip  even  if  it  was  a  rough  one. 
We  went  on  burro-liack,  for  the  road 
was  only  a  narrow  path,  steep  and  wind- 
ing. It  was  a  sheer  descent  of  at  least 
two  thousand  feet  to  the  bottom  of  the 
barranca,  and  the  cluuate  was  hot  and 
intensely  tropical  and  scenery  wonderful. 
It  seemed  skittish  enough  at  some  points 
gomg  down,  and  we  were  nearly  two 
hours  from  top  to  bottom,  the  way  was 
so  winding.  At  the  very  wildest  places 
the  guide  would  tell  Eliot  about  people  being  waylaid  and  robbed  and 
murdered  there,  and  Avhen  Eliot  would  translate  what  he  said  it 
would  fairly  make  our  hair  stand  on  end,  although  we  knew  there 
could  be  no  danger  with  a  party  so  large  as  ours.  It  seemed  strange 
enough  to  be  dowii  there  in  such  a  different  climate,  beside  the  large 
river,  and  look  up  at  the  steep  cliffs  on  the  sides,  as  if  Ave  were  at 
the  bottom  of  a  big  crack  in  the  earth.  The  narrow  strips  along  the 
river  Avere  carefully  cultivated  Avith  sugar-cane  and  all  sorts  of  trop- 
ical fruits. 

One  fine  fruit  in   Guadalajara  we  had  Avas  tiic  "  melon  zapote," 


206 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


which  was  not  a  zapote  at  all,  but  a  variety  of  the  papaya,  the  kind 
of  palm-tree  that  I  saw  first  in  Cuautla.  I  did  not  like  the  papaya 
fruit  at  all ;  it  looks  like  a  melon,  but  it  is  filled  Avith  small  seeds 
that  resemble  caviar  and  taste  like  nasturtium ;  the  fruit  had  a 
butternut  flavor.  But  the  melon  zapote  tastes  very  much  like  a  real 
muskmelon,  only  finer,  and  Avithout  the  stringyness  of  a  melon. 

Near  Guadalajara  is  where  they  make  the  famous  pottery,  and 


natural-lookino-  little  statuettes.  It  is  mostly  done  at  San  Pedro,  a 
large  suburl)  where  the  wealthy  families  go  fnmi  tlic  city  for  the 
summer.  Pantalon  Panduro,  tlie  best  modeller  of  all,  makes  a 
faithful  likeness  after  just  looking  at  a  person,  and  brings  it  round  a 
day  or  two  after. 

We  also  went   out   to  see   the  great   Salto    de   JuaMacatlau.    the 


THE    CKUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


207 


Ji 


grand  waterfall  iii  the  Rio  Santiago  known  as  the  "  Niagara  of 
Mexico."  It  is  really  n  splendid  sight,  and  being  only  about  fifteen 
miles  from  Guadalajara,  that  city  will  probably  be  furnished  mth 
electricity  for  light  and  power  from  there  some  day,  for  the  falls 
give  at  least  thirty  thousand  horse-power  now. 

Aunt  Maddie,  who  knows  all  about  public  charities,  says  she  has 
never  seen  such  a  fine  asylum  for  orphans  and  poor  people  anywhere 
else  as  the  Hospicio  in 
Guadalajara. 

On  the  Avay  back  we 
stopped  over  at  Queretaro, 
the  capital  of  the  State  of 
that  name.  It  is  a  very 
interesting  place,  with  a 
soft,  warm  climate,  and 
surrounded  by  a  rich  and 
beautiful  country.  There 
are  lots  of  fine  churches 
and  ancient  convents  fall- 
ing to  ruin.  Everybody 
was  delighted  ^\-itli  the 
chapel  of  Santa  Clara  that 

Hopkinson  Smith  described  so  beautifully  in  his  '•  White  Umbrella 
in  Mexico."  That  and  Janvier's  guide  have  helped  us  immensely  in 
enjoying  our  trip.  Queretaro  is  the  place  where  Emperor  Maximilian 
was  besieged  by  the  Republican  troops  under  President  Juarez  and 
is  particularly  interesting  on  account  of  its  association  vnth.  that 
event.     We  drove  out  to  see  the  place  just  outside  of  tlie  city,  at  the 


208 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


Ceiio  de  Ccampanas,  the  Hill  of  Bells,  where  Maxiuiilian  was  shot 
with  his  two  leading  generals,  Miramon  and  Mexia.  A  Mexican 
officer  who  was  there  told  Eliot  that  they  were  shot  at  the  very  in- 
stant of  sunrise,  so  that  they  did  not  see  the  sun  itself,  hut  fell  dead 
just  as  its  first  rays  struck  the  top  of  the  hill  on  whose  side  they 
stood. 

They  have  different  ways  of  carrying  water  in  different  Mexican 
cities.  In  Queretaro  they  carry  it  in  jars  on  rough-looking  Avheel- 
barrows ;  in  Acambaro  in  two  jars  hung  from  a  wooden  yoke  across 
a  man's  shoidders,  and  in  the  City  of  Mexico  men  used  to  carry  it  in 
jars  nearly  as  tall  as  themselves,  slung  on  their  backs,  but  now  they 
have  public  hydrants  all  over  the  city  and  so  there  are  no  watei- 
carriers. 

We  went  out  into  the  Canada  de  Queretrao,  which  is  a  nar- 
row valley  full  of  tropical  gardens  and  dense  vegetation:  going 
by  horse-car,  or  rather  mule-car.  The  railroad  runs  through  the 
Canada  on  the  way  to  Mexico,  so  we  got  another 
fine  sight  of  the  place  as  we  took  the  day-train 
back,  and  it  was  well  worth  seeing  a  second  tune. 
A  magnificent  great  aqueduct  that  supplies  the  city 
crosses   the  valley  on   tall, 

slender    arches    of    stone,  ^^  r  | 

and  the   railroad    runs  di-  ^ftojlj^^ 

agonally    through    one   of  l^M.  I 

the  arches.  A  little  Avays 
beyond  are  the  Hercules 
MUls,  the  largest  cotton 
manufactory    in   Mexico, 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    I,AXI)-YACHT.  209 

with  a  factory  village  of  several  tliousaiul  population.  The  watei^ 
power  for  the  mills  comes  from  a  tunnel  runnint;-  into  the  side  of  the 
mountain  about  a  mile,  and  the  Avater  coming-  out  is  very  warm,  so 
that  near  the  mouth  of  the  tunnel  there  is  a  fine  bathing-establish- 
ment, outside  of  which  there  is  a  large  basin  among  the  trees  and 
shrubbery,  which  is  used  by  the  operatives  and  other  poor  people. 
Queretaro  is  the  place  where  the  treaty  of  peace  between  Mexico  and 
the  United  States  was  signed  on  May  30,  1848. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

TREASURE-YIELDING      GUANAJUATO      AND      SAINT      LOUIS 
OF    THE    TREASURE. 

^^  "I  X /"ELL,  I  expect  that  our  last  trip  will  be  the  best  of  all,"  said 
'  '  Mr.  Biinkley.  "  I  had  no  idea  when  we  left  Boston  that 
the  Tauipico  line  would  be  finished  in  time  for  us  to  go  over  it,  but 
luck  is  with  us.  Mr.  Whorf  tells  me  that  the  scenery  is  the  finest  to 
be  found  on  any  railway  line  in  Mexico,  and  my  friend  Mr.  Jackson, 
the  general  manager  of  the  Mexican  Central,  who  has  just  returned 
from  the  grand  celebration  in  honor  of  the  opening  of  the  line  has 
kindly  arranged  it  so  that  we  can  see  it  in  the  pleasantest  manner 
possible.  We  are  going  to  have  a  locomotive  to  take  our  car  down 
and  back  from  San  Luis  Potosi  as  a  special,  so  that  our  movements 
will  not  be  hampered  by  the  schedule  requirements  of  any  regular 
train,  and  we  can  stop  along  at  any  place  we  may  choose  where  there 
.is  anything  we  care  to  see,  and  so  take  as  long  for  our  tnji  as  we 
may  wish.  That  is  the  way  Mr.  Whorf's  party  did,  ami  tliat  appears 
to  be  the  only  satisfactory  way  to  do  where  there  is  so  nuicli  to  see. 
According  to  what  they  tell  us,  it  is  a  pity  we  cannot  give  a  month 
to  it  !  " 

Mr.  Whorf  was  the  assistant  general  manager  of  the  railway,  and 
he  had  lately  been  over  the  new  line  in  the  first  train  to  go  tluough 
to  Tampico,  and  to  pass  over  the  last  rail.  Mr.  Briiddey  had  been 
talkiii"'-  with  him  and  some  of  his  party,  and  their  accounts  had  tired 
him  with  enthusiasm  to  go  and  do  likewise. 


THK    CHUISE    OK    A    LAND-YACHT.  211 

On  the  next  evening,  April  10,  they  bade  farewell  to  the  Mexican 
capital  where  they  had  passed  so  many  pleasant  days.  As  the  party 
clustered  upon  the  quarter-deck  o£  the  Ariadne  while  the  train  glided 
out  of  the  station,  they  were  given  God  speed  by  numerous  friends 
whom  they  had  found  and  made  there,  not  the  least  among  whom 
were  the  Jerseys  and  the  Andrades.  "  Good-bye !  "  and  "  Buen 
viage!"(Good  voyage)  were  shouted  for  the  last  time,  and  they 
watched  the  fluttermg  handkerchiefs  snowy  in  the  bright  electric- 
light  of  the  train-house  until  with  heightened  speed  they  vanished 
in  the  distance.  Igilacio  and  Pablo  Andrade  were  to  make  the  trip 
with  them  to  Tampico.  The  two  young  Mexicans  had  been  so  gen- 
uinely kind,  and  had  done  so  much  to  give  pleasure  to  his  l>arty,  that 
Mr.  Brinkley  desired  to  give  them  some  special  token  of  his  appre- 
ciation, and  so  he  had  invited  them  to  join  them  on  this  last  trip  and 
occupy  the  spare  beds  in  the  Ariadne's  parlor.  It  was  ten  minutes 
past  eight  o'clock  when  they  left,  and  they  at  once  sat  do-wn  to  sup- 
per. It  was  a  particidarly  merry  party  that  evening  at  tabic  and 
afterwards,  in  the  dining-room,  where  the  young  people  played  the 
liiano  and  sang  English  and  Spanish  songs  alternately,  while  at  the 
forward  doorway  George  and  Sam  and  little  Pete  looked  and  listened 
with  delighted  eyes  and  ears.  '^  Come  boys,  we  must  have  a  minstrel 
act  as  a  grand  finale  !  "  cried  Eliot,  and  George  and  Sam  were  in- 
duced to  take  the  banjo  and  give  tlicni  a  plantation  duet,  while  Pete 
indulged  in  a  break-down  with  bone  accompaniment,  to  the  huge 
enjoyment  of  the  Mexican  youths,  who  had  never  seen  anything  of 
the  kind  before. 

They  had  arranged  to  give  a  (hiy  to  (Tuanajuato.  tlie  great 
mining  city,  and  capital  of  the  State  of  the  same  name,  one  of  the 


212  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

largest  and  richest  in  Mexico.  Both  Mr.  Biinkley  and  EHot  had 
heen  there  before,  and  they  agreed  that  by  all  means  it  would  not 
do  to  miss  sight  of  one  of  the  most  picturesque  cities  in  the  world. 
Guanajuato,  being  off  the  main  line  of  railway,  at  the  end  of  a  short 
branch,  was  visited  by  comparatively  few  of  the  tourists  who  annually 
came  to  Mexico  and  who  did  not  take  the  trouble  to  go  out  of  their 
way  very  much. 

At  SUao  the  next  morning  they  were  transferred  to  the  Guana- 
juato branch,  and  were  soon  climbing  up  into  the  rugged  mountains 
to  the  eastward ;  the  famous  treasure-range  that  had  yielded  some  of 
the  greatest  fortunes  in  old  Spain,  as  well  as  proudest  titles  of 
"  nobility,"  titles  which  are  usually  founded  on  money,  or  base  ser- 
vices to  monarchs,  or  other  ignoble  things. 

The  railway  ended  at  the  suburb  of  Marfil,  five  kilometers  out  of 
Guanajuato,  and  they  there  took  the  tramway  for  the  city.  The 
route  was  bordered  by  odd-looking  buildings  belonging  to  the 
"  haciendas  de  beneficio,"  or  reduction  works  for  converting  the  ore 
from  the  mines  into  silver.  There  were  high-peaked  roofs,  groups  of 
towers  and  turrets,  and  arches  and  massive  walls.  The  large  city  of 
Guanajuato,  with  its  sixty  thousand  to  eighty  thousand  inhabitants, 
lives  upon  the  mming  industry  —  the  mining  and  reduction  of  ore. 
When  the  mines  are  exhausted,  as  sometime  they  must  be,  the 
niassive  place,  built  as  if  to  endure  for  ages,  will  be  deserted  by  its 
population  and  fall  into  ruins.  But  there  appear  to  be  no  signs  of 
it  yet,  though  mining  has  been  going  on  for  something  like  three 
centuries  and  at  least  a  billion  of  dollars  in  silver  and  gold  have 
been  taken  out  of  the  surrounding  moinitains. 

The  city  rose  before  tluMii,  ternice-like  and  billow-Hkc.  with  its 


'HE    CRUISE    OK    A    LAND-YACHT. 


213 


3  of  buildings  losing  themselves  in  the  various  side  valleys  extend- 
ing up  into  the  mountains.  They  wound  through  a  tortuous,  busy- 
lookino-  street  -nath  high  buildings,  and  from  the  end  of  the  tramway 
■were  conducted  to  a 
snug  hotel  facing  a 
little  triangular  pla- 
za with  a  pretty  gar- 
den and  music  pa- 
vilion. Here  they 
ordered  1  u n c h  at 
noon-time,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  s t ro  1 1 
about  the  city. 
"  How  f  a  s  c  i  n  a  t - 
ing!"  exclaimed 
Mabel.  "  There  is 
a  picture  at  every 
step  !  How  every- 
thing forms  itself  into  a  subject  for  an  artist!  No  wonder 
Hopkinson  Smith  was  enchanted.  The  lay  of  the  land  ;  those  steep 
clifEs  towering  all  around  us;  the  buildings  climbing  onto  the  slopes; 
the  architecture  ;  the  color ;  —  everything  !  " 

"  Do  you  see  how  you  might  step  from  the  flat  roofs  of  some  of 
these  houses  out  into  the  street  behind  ?  "  said  Eliot. 

"  And  some  of  these  streets  are  so  narrow  you  can  stand  in  the 
middle  and  touch  the  house-walls  on  each  side  !  "  exclaimed  Harry. 

"  What  delightful  pavements  !  "  cried  Florence.     "  These  peb- 
bles are  nice  and  smooth  to  walk  over.     And  to  think  of  street  after 


214  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

street  being  inlaid  in  these  pretty  j^atterns  with  Hnes  of  Hght-t-olored 
stones !  How  clean,  too  !  Why,  actually,  if  there  isn't  a  man 
going  around  and  sweeping  up  dirt  with  a  dust-pan  and  l)rusli  — 
a  wooden  dust-pan  !  " 

"  It  is  a  pity  they  don't  extend  their  ideas  of  cleanliness  to  their 
drainage-system,"  said  Eliot.  "  Whew !  Let's  get  awav  from  the 
neighborhood  of  that  river —  or  where  there  is  a  river  when  there  is 
any  water  !  " 

"That  is  the  great  need  of  Guanajuato  —  a  good  sewerage-svs- 
tem,"  said  Ignacio.  "  For  the  lack  of  it,  their  death-rate  is  the 
highest  in  Mexico.  And  they  could  easily  have  it,  as  Mv.  Blake 
has  shown  them,  and  make  themselves  one  of  the  healthiest  cities  in 
the  republic." 

They  climbed  to  the  edge  of  a  cliff  overlooking  the  city.  A 
tangle  of  the  thorny  growth  characteristic  of  the  table-land  grew 
near  the  edge  of  the  precipice ;  maguey  and  prickly-i)ear,  while  the 
tall  columns  of  the  organ-cactus  formed  a  sort  of  frame  for  the  pict- 
ure before  them  —  the  city  filling  the  irregular  valley  and  the 
mountains  risino-  hio-h  on  all  sides,  with  larg-e  mininji'-villaa'es  on  the 
surrounding  hillsides  and  summits,  clustered  about  the  castle-like 
structures  of  the  works  and  the  stately  domes  of  churches. 

"  How  we  can  trace  the  narrow  crooked  streets  ramifying-  in  and 
out  among  the  buildings  like  veins,"  said  Mabel. 

"  There  are  only  three  or  four  streets  in  the  wliolc  city  where 
you  can  di-ive  a  carriage,"  said  her  brother. 

"  What  is  that  building  like  an  amphitheatre  down  th('n>.  that  we 
can  almost  toss  a  stone  into  ?  "  asked  Florence. 

••  That  is  tlu'  tlu'atre."  said  Ignacio.      "  It  is  a  magnificent  mass- 


THE    CKIIISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


215 


ive  structure,  and  is  going-  to  cost  very  nuicli.  They  have  boon 
years  building  it  and  have  not  roofed  it  in  yet,  l)iit  sdinctinies  tlicy 
have  performances  there.  Do  you  see  that  large  gloomy-looking 
building  down  there?  That  is  the  Castillo  de  Granaditos,  where 
the  heads  of  the  four  patriots,  Hidalgo,  Allende,  Aldama  and  Jimenez, 
were  exposed  for  a  long  time.  Their  heads  were  brought  here  from 
Chihuahua,  where  they  were  shot,  because  this  had  been  the  centre  of 
the  revolution.  Dolores  de  Hidalgo,  where  the  revolution  started,  is 
in  this  State,  and  one  of  the  first  things  the  revolutionists  did  was  to 
capture  Guanajuato  for  the  sake  of  the  means  which  the  wealth  of 
the  mines  gave  them  to  carry  on  the  cause.  There  were  bloody 
scenes  in  this  city  more  than  once.  When  the  Spaniards  re-captured 
it,  several  thousand  of  the  inhabitants,  men,  women  and  children, 
were  driven  into  the  market-place  until  it  was  crowded,  and  then,  by 
order  of  the  Spanish  commander,  they  were  all  shot  down  by  the 
troops,  so  that  the  streets  literally  ran  rivers  of  blood." 

-  How  frightful !  "  said  Mabel,  with  a  shudder. 

''•  It  was  in  revenge  for  the  massacre  of  the  Spanish  garrison  by 
the  revolutionists,"  said  Ignacio.      "  War  is  always  terrible." 

After  lunch  they  all  set  out  on  a  ride  to  the  Valenciana  inines, 
the  most  famous  of  the  Guanajuata  group.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Brinkley, 
who  had  c-onfined  their  strolling  to  the  lower  levels  of  the  city,  while 
the  young  people  dandiered  along  the  hillsides,  decided  to  go  on 
burro-back,  while  horses  were  ol)tained  for  the  others.  As  they 
started,  there  was  considerable  merriment  over  the  figures  cut  by  the 
two  heaviest  members  of  the  party  nu)unted  upon  the  meek  little 
beasts.  "  Twelve  arrobas,  —  that  is,  tliree  hundred  poiuids  —  is  the 
re'vulatioii   load  for  a   burro,"   said    Kliot.      "  So   the   heaviest-loaded 


216  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

of  these  two  burros  has  a  margui  of  at  least  seventy-five  pounds." 
"  Only  thmk  !     Our  last  horseback  ride  in  Mexico,"  said  Florence. 
"  We  must  make  the  most  of  it." 

"  What  a  pity  I  haven't  Bayito  !  "  said  Harry. 
The  Valenciana  was  high  up  on  the  mountain-slope,  a  league 
from  the  city.  They  enjoyed  a  succession  of  glorious  views  on  the 
way.  Below  them  the  city  filled  its  cup-like  valley,  and  the  vast 
plain  where  ran  the  main  line  of  the  raUway  spread  out  ^v-ider  and 
wider  in  the  distance,  growing  bluer  and  more  unsubstantial  in  ap- 
pearance as  its  expanse  receded  in  the  clear  air  towards  the  mountains 
that  notched  the  horizon  in  the  dim  distance.  Before  them  at  the 
mine  the  great  church  towering  above  the  village  of  the  miners' 
dwellings  grew  larger  and  more  imposing  as  they  approached.  They 
passed  enormous  heaps  of  rejected  ore  on  the  way,  but,  as  they  con- 
tained many  plums  of  richer  stone  there  were  numerous  men  about 
them  picking  them  carefully  over  on  their  own  account,  payijig  the 
company  a  certain  rental  for  the  privilege.  They  Avere  shown  the 
main  entrance  of  the  mine  at  a  great  hexagonal  shaft,  that  seemed,  as 
they  peered  cautiously  down  into  its  indefinite  depths,  as  if  it  might 
reach  to  the  centre  of  the  earth.  In  reality  it  was  five  hundred 
meters,  or  nearly  seventeen  hundred  feet,  deep.  It  was  walled  in  by 
thick  masonry,  and  there  were  four  hoists  worked  by  a  steam-engine 
—  two  for  ore,  and  two  for  enormous  iron  buckets  for  draining  the 
mine  ;  when  swung  out  above  a  large  vat  beside  the  shaft  a  trap  in 
the  bottom  of  the  bucket  would  open,  letting  drop  a  torrent  of  water. 
The  water  was  valuable  for  use  in  tlie  boilers,  and  every  drop  possible 
Avas  saved,  for  it  is  a  precious  connnodity  in  Guanajuato  and  its 
neighborhood.      In    the  vat   were   condensing   pipes   to  cool    the  ex- 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  217 

haust  steam    from   the  engine  and  convert   it  hack    into  water   to  he 
used  again  in  the  hoilers. 

The  superintendent  of  tlie  mine  offered  to  show  them  how  deep 
the  shaft  was.  The  hoist  was  stopped,  and  a  large  hall  of  rope-yarn 
wound  around  a  heavy  stone  was  saturated  with  petroleum  and  sus- 
pended by  a  Avire  over  the  opening.  As  soon  as  it  was  still  it  was 
set  on  fire  and  let  drop.  It  made  a  startling  sight  as  it  darted  down- 
ward with  a  hoarse  roar  and  trailing  flames  like  a  meteor,  lighting 
up  the  dark  sides  of  the  shaft.  It  seemed  to  grow  smaller  and 
smaller,  until  it  dwindled  to  the  semblanee  of  a  glowuig  bullet.  Its 
noise  came  up  in  conthiual  reverberations.  Then  for  an  instant  it 
was  seen  to  light  the  inky  surface  of  a  pool  into  which  it  plunged, 
and,  with  the  quenching  of  its  light  a  denser  darkness  than  ever 
seemed  visibly  to  well  up  from  the  depths  and  fill  the  shaft,  as  if  the 
water  itself  had  by  some  magic  spell  been  made  to  swell  instantly  to 
a  mighty  volume.  The  sound  of  the  final  shock  after  the  heated 
ball  struck  the  water,  came  up  like  the  boom  of  a  distant  cannon. 

The  sight  was  wonderfully  impressive.  They  all  stood  in  silence 
for  a  minute  or  so,  as  if  something  solemn  had  occurred.  "  That 
made  a  piece  of  fireworks  worth  putting  beside  that  natural  gas  well 
we  saw  in  Ohio,"  said  Harry.  "  In  that  case  the  fire  was  comuig 
up  out  of  the  earth,  and  in  this  it  was  going  down  into  it." 

The  superintendent  offered  to  take  them  down  into  the  mine. 
"  Nothing  in  the  world  would  tempt  me  to  go  !  "  said  Florence, 
shuddering  as  she  thought  of  the  descent  of  the  fire-ball  into  the 
fearful  abyss.  No  one  appeared  to  be  enthusiastic  to  go,  and  Mr. 
Brinkley  cordially  thanked  the  superintendant  and  s<iid  their  time 
was  too  limited  to  undertake  it. 


218  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAXD-YACHT. 

The  great  chapel  next  engaged  their  attention.  It  was  so  large 
that  it  would  pass  for  a  cathedral  in  the  United  States,  and  was  the 
costliest  and  most  beautiful  of  all  the  mining  chapels  in  Mexico. 
The  dark  brown  stone  of  its  front  was  elaborately  carved.  Matching 
the  dock  in  one  of  the  twin  towers  there  was  a  complete  calendar  of 
the  year  in  the  other,  with  a  great  many  figures  and  signs.  Each 
of  the  three  great  altars  in  the  richly  decorated  interior,  of  intricately 
carved,  heavily  gUded  wood-work,  cost  seventy  thousand  dollars  apiece. 

The  superintendent  gave  them  some  interesting  particulars  about 
mining  in  Guanajuato.  The  Valenciana  mine,  in  sixty  years  since 
its  discovery  in  176G,  had  yielded  at  least  two  hundred  and  sixty-six 
million  dollars,  as  shown  by  the  records,  but  as  the  records  were  lost 
for  some  years,  it  was  believed  that  the  total  would  amount  to  three 
hundred  million.  One  of  its  owners  alone,  Antonio  Obregon,  had 
received  over  one  hundred  and  five  million  dollars  from  the  mine, 
and  his  wealth  had  bought  him  the  title  of  the  Count  of  Valenciana. 
The  mine,  though  still  yielding  largely,  was  not  paying  exjjenses 
now,  Ijut  there  was  no  knowing  when  a  rit'h  vein  might  he  struck 
aoain.  It  was  a  curious  fact  that  many  of  the  owners  of  mines  in 
Guanajuato  that  were  being  run  at  a  loss  nevertheless  found  their 
property  profitable,  for  they  were  owners  of  reduction-works  also, 
and  they  had  the  ore  reduced  at  their  own  works,  on  whicli  they 
made  handsome  profits.  It  was  said  that  the  mines  of  (nianajuato 
had  yielded  something  like  a  biUion  dollars  since  their  disco\-erv. 

They  returned  to  Silao  late  that  afternoon,  and  that  evening  on 
the  train  they  all  listened  with  keen  interest  to  what  Ignacio  told 
them  about  many  romantic  and  adventurous  incidents  in  the  history 
of  Mexican  mining ;  of  enormous  fortunes  suddenly  made,  of  others 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A 


219 


as  suddenly  lost,  of  remarkahle  rol)l)eries  of  treasure-trains,  and  of 
the  accounts  of  the  revelation  of  rich  mines  hy  means  of  visions,  and 
of  the  prmcely  display  of  great  wealth.  One  of  the  great  mine- 
owners  in  Pachuca  was  so  rich  that  when  his  daughter  was  married 
he  had  the  road  from  his  house  to  the  church  paved  with  silver  bars, 
over  which  the  wedding  party  walked  all  the  Avay. 

The  next  morning  they  continued  their  journey.  Just  beyond 
Aguascalientes  they  enterd  upon  the  branch  line  to  San  Luis  Potosi 
and  Tampico.  They  reached  the  former  city,  the  capital  of  tlie  im- 
portant State  of  the  same  name,  just  after  dark.  They  found  it  in 
such  a  blaze  of  illumination  in  honor  of  the  opening  of  the  railway 
to  Tampico  that  from  a  distance  it  seemed  as  if  a  conflagration  were 
raging.  The  station  was  almost  in  the  heart  of  the  city,  and  they 
went  out  to  see  the  rejoicing.  Merry,  but  orderly  crowds  filled  the 
narrow  streets.  On  all  sides  there  were  great  festoons  of  Japanese 
lanterns,  like  strings  of  luminous  beads  of  many  colors.  Along  the 
edges  of  the  housetops  were  dotted  lines  of  tiny  flame  from  tapers 
floating  in  little  saucers  of  pottery  filled  with  oil.  On  many  of  the 
flat  roofs  huge  bon-fires  were  blazing,  and  Bengal  flames  of  all  colors 
were  gleaming  out  continually  on  all  hands,  painting  in  fantastically 
rich  hues  the  beautifully  carved  church-towers  that  lifted  themselves 
brightly  against  the  dark  sky.  Electric  lights  were  abundantly 
sprinkled  around,  and  in  the  main  plaza  dense  throngs  were  listening 
to  fine  music  from  milituiy  bands,  and  splendid  fireworks  were  inces- 
santly flashing. 

"  How  perfectly  gorgeous  !  "  cried  Florence,  in  ecstasy. 

"■  I  never  saw  any  fireworks  anywhere  that  beat  these,"  said 
Eliot. 


220  THE  CRUISE  OF  A  LAKD-YACHT. 

"  Here  Pablo,  your  haiul  on  it  !  "  shouted  Harry  in  enthusiasm. 
"  You  Mexicans  just  know  how  to  illuminate  !  I  never  saw  anything 
at  home  that  could  hold  a  candle  to  this !  " 

"  San  Luis  Potosi  probably  has  good  reason  to  rejoice,''  said  Mr. 
Brinkley,  "  for  the  opening  of  the  line  to  Tampico  will  make  her 
one  of  the  most '  important  commercial  cities  in  Mexico  and  more 
than  restore  her  to  the  position  she  held  before  the  building  of  the 
Vera  Cruz  Railway  diverted  all  the  trade  from  the  coast  that  way." 

"  What  does  Potosi  mean  ?  "  asked  Mabel. 

"  Treasure,"  responded  Ignacio.  "  The  city  was  foimded  be- 
cause rich  mines  were  discovered  in  a  range  near  by  to  the  eastward. 
So  they  called  it  Saint  Louis  of  the  Treasure,  as  you  would  say  in 
English." 

They  caught  the  infection  of  the  universal  rejoicing  about  them, 
and  on  returning  to  the  Ariadne  after  lingering  late  to  listen  to  the 
music  and  see  the  sights,  they  all  shared  in  the  confidence  that  the 
fine  old  city  was  at  the  beginning  of  a  busy  and  prosperous  future. 
"  It  really  ought  to  be  a  great  distributing  point,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley. 
"  Here  the  two  great  railway-systems  of  the  country,  the  Mexican 
Central  and  the  Mexican  National,  cross  each  other  and  give  facili- 
ties for  traffic  in  nearly  all  directions.  By  the  way,  if  the  National 
were  only  standard-gauge  we  might  go  home  that  way  from  here. 
The  scenery  is  fine  and  Monterey  is  a  very  interesting  place.  We 
shall  have  to  have  the  gauge  widened  for  our  benefit  the  next  time 
we  come  to  Mexico  !  " 

At  the  car  they  found  a  pleasant-looking  young  American  await- 
ing their  return.  "  Mr.  Whorf  wired  me  to  meet  you  here,  if  pos- 
.sible,  and  to  show  you  over  our  line,"  he  said. 


THiC    CHUISE    OK    A    LAND-YACHT.  221 

"  Ah,  then  you  must  he  Mr.  McCotter,  tlie  superintendent  of  the 
"Tampifo  Division,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley.  "  Somehow  I  liad  heen 
looking  for  an  okler  man.  I  am  delighted  to  know  you,  Mr. 
McCotter.  From  what  Mr.  Whorf  told  me  of  your  trip  together  in 
that  first  train,  I  am  sure  it  will  be  a  rare  piece  of  good  fortune  for 
us  to  have  the  pleasure  of  your  company.  Unfortunately  all  our 
beds  are  full,  but  if  you  ^vill  jjut  up  with  a  mattress  on  the  floor,  I 
think  we  can  make  you  fairly  comfortable." 

"  Thank  you,  but  there  is  really  no  occasion  for  the  trouble.  I 
have  brought  my  own  car  along,  such  as  it  is,  and  shall  get  along 
nicely." 

"  At  all  events,  you  must  join  us  at  meal-times.  This  is  a  great 
celebration  here !  " 

"  It  is  indeed,  and  they  keep  it  up  for  several  days.  They  have 
a  capacity  for  that.  Fireworks,  illuminations,  banquets,  balls,  games, 
concerts,  etc.  It  is  like  a  week  of  Fourth  of  July  !  They  enjoyed 
the  grand  excursion  to  Tampico  and  back  immensely.  But  it  could 
not  compare  with  ours  just  before,  nor  will  it  mth  what  we  shall 
have  this  time,  for  the  party  was  too  large  to  stoj)  over  to  see  the 
sights  at  different  interesting  points.  But  I  will  bid  you  good 
night.  We  pull  out  from  here  at  4  o'clock,  and  by  daylight  we 
shall  be  dropping  down  from  the  table-land  pretty  rapidly." 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

DOWN    AMONG    TROPICAL    MARVELS. 


T' 


'HEY   were  all  up  betimes  the 
next  morning-.     Behind  them, 
.^:^J^'  --ii^^l,-.^  to    tlie    westward,   the    long, 

"  '  *^       ^'   n?      "^^"^JN,'  ~*^     slanting  shadows  cast  by  the 
,'-  ' -±i^  '■       -     V^-%  early    sun    extended    over   a 

^'"■■^-    ■  ^r     4r  vast  plain  out  oi  whose  ex- 


panse grand  mountain  ranges 

Lifted  themselves  into  the  air. 

As  they  stopped  at  a  station  Mr.  McCotter  said  :  "  Now  we  shall 

soon  be  taking  our  first  great  drop,  down  into  the  valley  of  San 

Yaidro." 

"What  a  funny-looking  car!"  exclaimed  Harry,  who  had  jumped 
to  the  ground,  and  was  looking  ahead  along  the  train,  which  was  a 
short  one,  consisting  only  of  the  Ariadne,  Mr.  McCotter's  car,  and  a 
locomotive. 

"  Yes,  that  is  my  '  Canvas-back,'  as  we  call  her,"  said  Mr.  McCot- 
ter. "  No  wonder  you  laugh.  The  combination  of  your  Ariadne 
here,  and  that  chunky,  scrubby-looking  little  thing  hitched  on  ahead 
of  her,  reminds  me  of  Landseer's  picture,  '  Dignity  and  Impudence.' " 

The  "  Canvas-back  "  was  simply  a  freight-train  caboose,  fitted  up 
comfortably  for  Mr.  McCotter's  convenience  in  his  frequent  trips  over 
the   line.     The  peculiar   feature   that   gave   the  car  its    name    v.as  a 


•AXD-YACHT. 


223 


canvas  aAviiiiiu',  stretilicd  out  on  a  lovel  with  the  top  of  tlio  look-out, 
and  extendlnj"-  well  over  the  sides  and  ends,  so  as  to  give  the  utmost 
shade  2)ossible. 

"  I  see  you  have  the  same  idea  for  the  iiiotection  of  your  car  that 
I  have  embodied  in  the  double  roof  of  the  Ariadne,"  said  Mr. 
Brinkley- 

•'  Yes,  and  the  shade  from  that  piece  of  canvas,  with  the  free 
circulation  of  ail-  between,  makes  a  wonderful  difference  in  temper- 
ature. Without  it,  the  car  would  be  like  an  oven  in  the  hot  climate 
of  the  coast." 

They  started,  and,  after  winding  through  a  rough  and  narrow 
gorge  of  bare,  baked-looking  rock,  they  began  to  drop  rapidly,  but 
cautiously,  in  a  series  of  sharp  curves,  down  a  heavy  grade. 

"  How  strange  those  mountains  look  !  "  said  Harry,  looking  up 
at  the  heights  that  towered  beside  the  narrow  valley.  "  They  are 
all  covered  with  trees  on  one  side  and  bare  as  a  bone  on  the  other." 

"  That  is  on  account  of  the  moist  aii-  blowing  continually  inland 
from  the  Gulf,"  said  Mr.  McCotter.  "  It  deposits  its  moisture  on 
the  windward  sides  of  the  slopes,  and  leaves  nothing  for  the  lee- 
ward." 

"  That  sounds  good  — windward  and  leeward  ! "  said  Harry.  "  I 
might  know  you  were  from  the  coast." 

'•  Yes,  if  T  hiidn't  learnt  it  in  Boston  harbor,  I  might  have  done 
so  at  Tampico  !  " 

As  they  crept  along  the  faces  of  cliffs  and  swung  aroinid  abrupt 
points  they  caught  sight  of  lower  and  lower  depths  of  the  widening 
valley,  its  slopes  mantled  with  a  luxuriant  green.  "  What  a  contrast 
from  the  dry  regions  where  we  have  been  !  "  exclaimed  Mabel. 


224  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

"  And  this  is  the  dry  season,  too,"  said  Mr.  MeCotter.  "  Per- 
haps you  can  imagine  what  it  must  be  in  the  rainy  months  !  But, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  never  dry  here,  and  these  slopes  are  jJerpet- 
ually  green.  You  would  be  likely  to  think,  however,  that  the  farther 
east  you  went  the  greener  it  grows.  But  the  contrary  is  the  case. 
Pretty  soon,  as  we  jjroceed,  we  shall  find  the  country  growing  dryer 
and  dryer.  You  see  the  land  falls  oif,  from  the  high  table-land  to 
the  coast,  in  a  series  of  several  terraces.  Each  step  forms  a  wide, 
trough-like  valley  running  in  a  general  northerly  and  southerly 
direction,  the  edge  marked  by  a  range  of  mountains.  The  winds 
from  the  Gulf,  continually  blowing  from  the  eastward,  blow  against 
the  eastern  slopes  of  these  mountains,  and  passing  over  their  sum- 
mits, repeats  the  operation  on  the  next  higher  ranges,  and  so  on.  So 
the  inner  slopes  of  the  ranges  and  the  easterly  sides  of  the  valleys  are 
left  dry,  while  the  westerly  portion  and  outer  slopes  are  kept  moist." 

They  entered  a  wide  plain  where  richly  cultivated  land  stretched 
away  for  miles  and  miles,  and  kept  on  in  a  bee-line  across  the  valley, 
which  they  perceived  grew  dryer  as  they  advanced,  just  as  they  had 
been  told.  "  It  seems  strange  how  the  opposite  sides  of  the  same 
valley  can  have  entirely  different  climates,  one  very  moist  and  the 
other  very  dry,"  said  Mr.  MeCotter.  "  This  level  here  forms  the 
first  great  step  in  the  descent  from  the  main  table-land.  There  are 
two  more  broad  plain-like  steps,  and  then  comes  the  great  plain  of 
the  coast." 

"  Before  I  came  to  Mexico,"  said  Harry,  '"  I  always  thought  that 
the  table-land  was  all  flat  and  even,  like  a  table,  and  I  was  surprised 
to  find  it  seamed  everywhere  with  mountain  ranges,  and  the  ])lains 
always  forming  a  slope  like   the  roof  of  a  shed  ;  lying  at    dillVrcnt 


227 


levels  between  the  inouiitains  instead  of  all  on   one  general  level." 

"  Yes,  Mexico  is  a  land  of  mountains  from  one  end  to  the  other," 
said  Eliot.  "  The  only  i)art  of  the  eountrv  I  have  ever  been  in 
where  mountains  were  not  in  sight  is  Yucatan,  which  is  a  sort  of 
duplicate  of  Florida." 

"  It  seems  just  like  a  rumpled  sheet,"  said  Harry.  "  I  believe 
that  if  you  could  pull  the  surface  out  even,  it  would  stretch  the 
country  out  as  wide  as  the  Mississippi  valley  !  " 

"  In  this  valley,  off  to  the  southward  there  about  twenty  miles," 
said  Mr.  McCotter,  "  lies  the  city  of  Rio  Verde.  It  is  a  beautiful 
place  and  they  raise  quantities  of  fine  oranges  around  there.  They 
do  something  to  their  oranges  I  never  heard  of  anywhere  else ;  they 
smoke  them  just  as  hams  are  smoked.  They  say  it  preserves  them 
for  a  much  longer  tune  and  keeps  them  from  drying'  up.  I  hardly 
see  why  it  should,  but  of  course  it  must,  or  they  wouldn't  do  it." 

Their  next  descent  was  into  the  beautiful  cup-like  valley  of  Las 
Canoas,  its  verdant,  undulating  meadows  closed  in  on  nearly  every 
side  by  precipitous  mountains.  Wild  and  grotesque-looking  rocks, 
richly  dressed  with  shrubs  and  ferns,  with  a  plumage  of  trees  grow- 
ing in  every  possible  crevice,  thrust  themselves  sharply  up  through 
the  ground  in  long,  ''  razor-backed  "  ridges.  The  course  of  a  dear 
stream  was  marked  by  a  line  of  great  cypresses.  There  were  delicate 
fleecy  clouds  floating  in  the  tender  sky,  so  differennt  in  its  blueness 
from  the  dome  of  intense  brilliancy  that  arched  over  the  table-land. 

"We  are  clearly  getting  down  into  tropical  luxuriance,"  said 
Mabel.  "  See  those  beautiful  great  velvety-leaved  plants  growing 
all  along  the  margin  of  the  water.  It  seems  like  a  conservatory  run 
wild." 


228  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

"  Only  wait  for  a  few  miles,  before  you  think  of  tropical/'  said 
Mr.  McCotter.  Do  you  see  that  ravine  down  there  deepen  and 
broaden  ?     That  is  the  beginning  of  the  great  Tamasopo  canon." 

Accompanying  this  ravine  in  its  course,  the  train  entered  a  nar- 
row pass  in  the  mountains  and  was  soon  winding  along  the  precip- 
itous southerly  side  of  the  gorge,  passing  through  a  succession  of 
tunnels  in  sharp  curves,  the  depths  below  growing  greater  and 
greater,  although  the  railway  line  itself  was  on  a  rapidly  descending 
grade.  The  steep  slopes  were  thickly  mantled  with  vegetation  that 
softened  the  wild  ruggedness  of  the  outlines.  "  What  a  mottled 
and  variegated  mass  of  coloring!  It  ranges  from  light  golden- 
green  tints  down  to  the  darkest  shades,"  said  Mabel. 

"  It  looks  as  if  the  mountains  were  draped  in  rich  Oriental 
shawls  of  a  greenish  tone,"  said  Florence. 

Ahead  of  them  they  saw  a  gigantic  natural  wall  witli  a  jagged 
top  cutting  straight  across  the  canon,  down  one  declivity  and  up  the 
opposite.  Passing  through  this  "  Muralla  del  Diablo,"  or  "  Devil's 
Wall,"  as  it  was  called,  by  a  short  tunnel  cut  through  it  like  a  door- 
way, they  saw  the  narrow  caiion  widening  out  and  revealing  a  vast 
panoramic  landscape  beyond.  They  passed  out  of  the  caiion  on 
rounding  a  point,  and  turning  abruptly  to  the  right,  their  train 
crawled  along  a  narrow  shelf  cut  in  the  face  of  a  tremendous  cliff 
bounding  the  great  valley  before  them.  It  was  a  sheer  descent  of 
as  much  as  twelve  hundred  feet  down  to  a  dense  tropical  forest,  the 
most  luxuriant  they  had  ever  seen.  The  cliff  rose  above  them  to  a 
height  etpial  to,  if  not  greater  than,  tlie  distance  down  to  where  its 
rocky  feet  were  slippered  in  the  warm  verdure.  On  tlie  slopes  of 
the  mountains  were  little  liandkercliicf'-likc  ))atclics  wlicrc  tlic  Indians 


THE    CUUISK    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  229 

had  siigai--cane  growing-,  the  light,  yellowish-green  strangely  marking 
them  from  afar  off  as  they  lay  spread  out  amidst  the  dark  foliage. 
With  the  exception  of  these,  and  a  large  cultivated  area  seen  in  the 
distance,  the  whole  expanse  seemed  to  he  a  wilderness.  Far  ahead, 
along  the  steep  slopes  of  the  mountains,  they  could  trace  the  course 
of  the  track  they  were  to  traverse,  as  it  showed  here  and  there  out 
of  the  thick  mantle  of  trees,  Avinding  down  and  down  in  serpentine 
loops,  and  finally  appearing  directly  below  them,  forming  a  straight 
avenue  through  the  forest.  Thence  it  again  meandered  away  into 
the  remote  distance,  where,  as  it  disappeared  around  a  far  mountain 
shoulder,  it  could  be  seen  that  there  were  lower  levels  in  the  valley 
yet  to  be  reached. 

"Do  you  see  that  notch  way  over  there  in  the  mountahis?" 
asked  Mr.  McCotter.  "  That  is  the  pass  tlirougli  which  we  have  to 
go  to  the  next  wide  terrace  in  our  descent,  and  we  shall  be  there 
this  evening." 

They  all  stood  out  on  the  rear  platform  and  watched  tlie  chang- 
ing scenes  that  followed  each  other  in  a  bewildering  array  of 
grandeur  and  beauty. 

About  half  an  hour  after  leaving  the  Tamasopo  canon  they  found 
themselves  among  the  tall  trees  of  the  primeval  forest  that  crowded 
themselves  in  thick  ranks  about  its  mouth.  They  learned  with  sui-- 
prise  that  it  was  cultivated  ground  —  a  coffee  plantation,  or  cafetal. 
For,  although  primeval,  the  rank  undergrowth  had  been  cleared 
away  and  coffee  trees  planted.  They  could  see  the  glossy,  ever- 
green leaves  of  the  coffee,  and  its  flowers  of  pure  white,  gleaming 
star-like  out  of  the  verdant  shadow. 

As  they  sped  on,  they  passed  many  a  stream  of  rushing  clear 


230  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

water.  This  valley  likewise  grew  dryer  as  they  passed  to  the  east- 
ward. The  forest  giants  gave  way  to  tall  and  closely  growing  fan- 
palms  and  thickets  of  bamboo  in  graceful  phmiage.  At  intervals 
they  passed  groups  of  men  at  work  on  the  track  —  Indians  mostly, 
and  many  of  them  wearing  hardly  any  clothing,  which  none  of  them 
really  needed,  so  far  as  comfort  went,  m  that  climate.  All 
laughed  heartily  at  one  man  whom  they  saw  trudging  along  the  track. 
When  they  first  saw  him  he  was  back  to,  and  he  seemed  to  be  wear- 
ing nothing  but  a  pair  of  cotton  drawers,  but  when  they  passed  bun 
they  saw  that  he  evidently  wanted  to  look  more  dressed  up  to  people 
whom  he  met,  for  a  large  red  bandanna  handkerchief  covered  his 
waist  also,  so  that  he  seemed  to  be  wearing  a  shirt  "  when  viewed 
on  his  north  side,"  as  Eliot  said,  —  an  expression  that  struck  Iguacio 
and  Pablo  as  very  droll. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  they  reached  the  Abra  de  CabaUeros,  their 
next  pass  through  the  mountains.  The  landscape  equalled  in  its 
grandeur  anything  they  had  seen.  The  opening  through  the  range 
was  nearly  straight,  ^vith  almost  perpendicular  sides,  and  the  track 
was  laid  through  the  bottom  of  the  pass,  following  the  course  of  the 
stream.  Therefore  they  had  the  fuU  advantage  of  the  entu-e  height 
in  their  view  of  the  scene.  On  either  side  of  the  narrow  entrance 
there  stood,  like  giant  sentinels,  two  great  peaks  with  smooth-look- 
ing, precipitous  faces. 

"  We  will  keep  on  down  through  the  pass  for  the  sake  of  the 
view,"  said  Mr.  McCotter.  "  It  is  particularly  fine  at  this  late 
hour." 

It  was  but  a  short  distance  throngli,  and  in  the  soft  liglit  of  the 
waning  day  another  glorious  panorama  was  suddenly  spread  before 


THE    CRUISK    OF    A    LANP-YAf'HT. 


231 


them.  The  vast  plain  seemed  to  be  ahnost  Hmitless.  Before  them, 
across  the  valley  in  the  faint  distance  to  the  eastward,  there  ran  the 
last  range  to  be  passed  before  reaching  the  coast  plain.  The  mouth 
of  the  Abra  de  Caballeros  was  still  over  a  hundred  miles  from  the 
Gulf.  The  plain  was  hundreds  of  feet  directly  down  from  the  track, 
which  ran  along  the  steep  face  of  the  mountains  and  gradually 
meandered  down  to  the  lower  levels. 

Behind  them,  looking  up  the  pass,  there  was  an  enchanting  jiict- 
urc.  On  the  opposite  side  a  tremendous  cliff  rose  in  a  sheer  preci- 
pice to  its  rounded  summit  for  a  height  of  something  like  three 
thousand  feet.  The  sternness  of  its  stony  face  was  softened  by  the 
rich  masses  of  vegetation  that  clothed  it.  Directly  at  its  feet  the 
river  that  flowed  through  the  pass  came  tumbling  down  in  a  series 
of  great  cascades  for  a  total  fall  of  about  three  hundred  feet.  The 
rocks  beneath  the  water  were  all  clothed  with  some  peculiar  aquatic 
vegetation  that  gave  to  the  falls  a  wonderfully  i)ure  and  luminous 
emerald  color. 

The  train  backed  up  to  a  place  some  distance  above  the 
falls  where  there  was  a  good  opportunity  for  a  bath  in  the  gentle 
rapids.  The  young  men  went  down  to  the  river  through  the  thick 
jiHigle  along  a  convenient  path  that  had  been  cut  a  few  days  before 
for  the  previous  party.  They  Avere  soon  merrily  sporting  in  the 
deUcious  water  which  came  sweeping  down  over  their  shoulders  like 
a  softly  flowing  mantle,  as- they  lay  reclining  in  great  natural  bath- 
tubs hollowed  out  among  the  rocks.  These  had  been  excavated  by 
the  force  of  the  current  diu-ing  the  mighty  floods  of  a  thousand  sea- 
sons as  it  hurled  great  boulders  about  in  the  bed  of  the  stream. 

While  they  were  dressing  they  heard  some  uiu'arthly  yells  from 


232 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


somewhere  up  the  stream.  They  all  started  in  affright,  not  knowing- 
what  might  have  happened.  The  cries  came  nearer,  and  they  recog- 
nized a  familiar  voice.  In  a  moment  Sam,  the  cook,  came  plunging 
through  the  undergrowth  into  their  midst  and,  finding  himself  sud- 
denlv  surrounded  hy  a  group  of  naked  white  human  shapes,  and  not 
recognizing  them  at  first  in  the  dim  light  of  the  late  dusk,  he  gave  a 
shriek  of  terror  more  agonizing  than  ever.  Even  through  the  gloom 
they  could  see  tliat  his  face  was  as  pale  as  a  person  of  his  complexion 

well  could  he.  It  recalled  a  mass 
of  partially  consumed  charcoal, 
powdered  witli  its  own  ashes. 
"  What  in  the  world  is  the 
matter,  Sam?"  demanded  Eliot. 
•  •  O  Marse  Eliot,  M  arse 
Eliot!  "  cried  the  cook,  recover- 
ing himself  a  bit,  but  trembling 
aU  over,  so  that  his  voice  also 
shook,  "  Then  it's  only  you  and 
the  other  young  gen'lemen ! 
I  s'posed  f  suah  you  was  all 
some  kind  o'  wild  cannybawls 
rov'n  round  lieah  !  " 

"  Well,  yt'ii  see  we  are  not 

cannibals  after  all !      Though 

there's  no  knowing  what  might 

~  liajiiK'ii,  we   arc   so   liuiigry   for 

one   of    your  good   suppers,   after  our   bath.      Now  tell    us  what  you 

were  raising  all  that  hidlabaloo    about  just  now.       The  ecliocs  have 

lianllv  died    away  vet !  " 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  233 

"  Why,  I  went  down  t'  the  eriek  thiih  to  see  f"  I  couldn't  shoot 
some  ducks  whah  th'  trees  groAV  up  out  the  water  sort  o"  swanipv 
like.  I  stood  lookin'  round  and  right  to  my  feet  there  was  a  log 
lyin'  in  the  water,  as  I  s'posed.  But,  as  1  give  it  a  kick  to  see  if 
'twasn't  too  rotten  to  stand  on,  all  't  once  th'  nigh  end  opened  up 
on  me  like  a  pair  o'  taUor's  shears  !  Foh  de  Lawd  'twas  a  great  l»ig 
alligator,  and  I  could  see  way  down  into  an  awful  dee})  black  throat 
like  a  bottomless  pit  big  enough  to  swaller  th'  ingine  to  our  train  I 
You  better  b'lieve,  Marse  Eliot,  I  didn't  lose  no  time  gitt'n  'way 
from  thah  !  " 

"  Alligators  here  close  by  !  "  cried  Harry,  turning  a  bit  pale  him- 
self. "  Why,  it  must  have  been  a^vfuUy  dangerous  for  us  to  go  in 
swimming  here  !     We  might  have  got  bitten  ourselves  !  " 

"  0  no,  there's  not  the  least  danger  in  a  place  like  this !  "  said 
Mr.  McCotter.  "  The  alligators  are  only  found  in  sluggish  water ; 
in  the  pools  and  other  still  places.  They  never  come  down  among 
the  rocks  and  rapids." 

The  train  backed  up  to  the  station  at  the  entrance  of  the  pass, 
and  here  they  lay  over  till  morning.  It  was  warm  enough  that 
night,  but  the  electric  fan  prevented  the  atmosphere  from  becoming 
oppressive,  and  they  slept  comfortably. 

It  was  long  before  daylight  when  the  train  started,  and  when 
they  were  up  they  found  themselves  at  the  entrance  of  the  jiassage 
through  the  last  range,  before  reaching  the  coast  plain.  The  pass 
was  called  El  Boca  del  Abra. 

"  Now  we  shall  take  a  look  at  a  cave,""  said  Mr.  McCotter,  after 
they  had  eaten  breakfast.  He  guided  them  up  the  slope  of  the  pass 
beside  the  track  and  a  short  climb  over  the  rocks  brought  them  to 


234  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

the  entrance  of  the  cave.  Here  they  found  themselves  ha  a  large 
rotunda-like  space,  Avith  Avails  of  pure,  grayish  tints,  stained  here 
and  there  with  delicate  green  and  other  subtle  shades  of  color 
by  the  mineral-charged  water  that  had  seeped  through  and  also 
formed  the  graceful  fringes  of  stalactites  depending  from  the  roof. 

It  was  quite  different  from  Harry's  conception  of  a  cave,  for  they 
needed  no  torches  with  which  to  see  their  way ;  instead  of  ha\-ing  to 
peer  through  deep  gloom  and  half  imagine  the  shapes  of  things 
about  them,  the  place  was  filled  with  a  pleasant  mellow  light  that 
poured  down  from  above,  through  an  almost  circular  opening  in  the 
dome-like  ceiling.  Looking  up,  they  caught  bright  glimpses  of  the 
blue  morning  sky  through  a  canopy  of  foliage  sprinkled  with  sun- 
shine. The  roots  of  trees  grew  downward  through  this  opening 
and  exhibited  various  stages  of  growth,  from  fringes  of  deUcate  fila- 
ments suspended  in  the  air  to  strong,  slender  columns  that  formed 
an  irregular  ring  in  the  centre  of  the  rotunda,  apparently  supporting 
the  roof,  in  rivalry  with  the  stalactites.  Directly  beneath  the  open- 
ino-  there  o-rew  a  mass  of  shrubs  and  plants  in  the  light  Avhicli  it 
afforded,  forming  a  sort  of  natural  flower-bed. 

They  passed  on  through  a  series  of  chambers,  some  still  loftier 
and  others  low  and  spreading,  but  all  having  the  skylight  feature. 
Some  of  tlie  rooms  Avere  at  higher  levels  tlian  the  others,  and  from 
one  they  could  look  down  through  an  opening  Avitli  a  sort  of  balct)ny 
into  another  in  which  they  had  already  been. 

"  This  is  the  most  delightful  sort  of  cave  I  ever  heard  of."  saitl 
Florence. 

"  All  tlie  caves  in  this  part  of  the  country  are  like  this ;  tlicy  all 
have  skylights,"  said  Mr.  McCotter.      '•  At   mw  \A:u-r   further  down 


THE    CKITISK    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


235 


the  line  you  can  see  in  the  distance  an  openino-  in  the  side  of  a 
mountain,  like  a  great  arched  portal.  It  is  two  or  tliree  hundred 
feet  high,  and  is  called  L<i  VvnhiiKi,  or  the  Window.  The  cave  is 
something-  over  seven  hundriMl  feet  high  from  lioor  to  ceiling,  and 
forms  a  magnificent  great  liall.  well  lighted  from  above.  It  was 
once  the  abode  of  a  band  of  robl)ers,  and  in  the  walls  are  still  the 
iron  rings  where  they  vised  to  tie  their  horses.  It  is  really  a  hollow 
mountain,  a  sort  of  great  stone  shell. 

'■  Here  are  the  tracks  of  some  animal,"  said  Mr.  Brinklcy,  point- 
ing to  some  footprints  on  the  floor. 

''  Fresh  tracks,  too,"  said  Eliot.  "  It  must  have  been  quite  a 
sizeable  beast." 

"  Why,  they  are  tiger-tracks  !  "  exclaimed  Mr.  McCotter. 

"  Tigei-tracks !  "  shrieked  the  ladies,  in  unison. 

''  Why,  perhaps  he's  still  here  !  "  cried  Harry. 

"  I  think  not ;  he's  probably  gone  out  to  look  for  his  breakfast ! " 
said  Mr.  McCotter. 

"  Well,  I  for  one  do  not  intend  to  give  him  a  chance  to  find  it 
here,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley. 

The  ladies  had  not  waited  for  further  explanations,  but  had 
rushed  off  in  the  direction  whence  they  had  come.  The  others 
followed,  by  no  means  slowly.  "Suppose  we  really  had  seen  the 
eyes  of  the  tiger  himself  glaring  at  us  out  of  some  of  those  dark 
recesses  in  there,  like  two  balls  of  fire!  How  we  woidd  have  come 
piling  out  of  that  cave  then  !  "  said  Harry,  when  they  were  outside, 
and  breathing  freely  again. 

"  It  makes  me  shudder  to  think  of  it !  "  crii'd  Florence. 

"  I  shall  always  insist  that  we   have  had  a  narrow  escape."  said 


23G  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAXD-YACHT. 

Mabel.  "  The  fresh  tracks  bring  the  real  tiger  near  enough,  and  I 
shall  make  the  most  of  it  when  I  tell  about  it  at  home.  It  is  too 
good  an  opportunity  not  to  be  imjJroved.  Now  after  we  once  get 
started  again  on  the  train,  I  should  really  enjoy  a  sight  of  His  Tiger- 
ship  peering  over  the  rocks  at  us." 

"  But  the  tiger  is  an  Asiatic  animal,"  said  Harry.  "  How  is  it 
there  are  tigers  here  ?  " 

"  It  is  really  the  jaguar,"  said  Eliot.  "  But  it  is  also  known  as 
the  American  tiger,  and  the  Mexicans  call  it  the  tigre.  It  looks 
something  like  a  tiger,  and  is  beautifully  spotted,  but  is  much 
smaller." 

Just  as  they  had  reached  the  train  they  were  startled  by  the 
sharp  report  of  a  gun  in  the  direction  whence  they  had  come,  fol- 
lowed by  another.     What  could  have  happened  ? 

"  I  saw  some  of  the  men  going  out  with  guns  just  before  we 
started  to  go  to  the  cave,"  said  Harry. 

"  The  second  one  was  a  rifle-shot,"  said  Mr.  McCotter,  '••  but  then 
they  might  have  fired  at  a  parrot  with  a  rifle  by  mistake.  Jack 
Bliven,  the  fireman,  has  a  shot-gun  and  rifle  combined." 

Very  shortly  there  appeared  up  on  the  slope  above  them  two 
men  bearing  the  limp  carcass  of  a  tawny  animal. 

"  Tliey've  shot  the  tiger  sure  enough ! "  exclaimed  Eliot.  "  What 
luck  !  " 

It  was  Bliven  and  Antonio,  the  latter  a  IMexican  l)rakenian. 

There  was  great  excitement  all  around  when  the  tiger  was  laid 
on  the  ground  before  them,  and  the  two  men  were  highly  elated. 

"  Mighty  lucky  my  shot-gun  was  a  rifle  too !  "  said  RIi\  en. 
"  Antonio  and  I  went  out  after  birds,  and   we  came  suddenly  upon 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  237 

the  tiger.  Antonio  saw  him  first  and  gave  a  yell ;  he  was  crouchetl 
among  the  rocks  not  ovor  ten  paces  away,  all  ready  to  spring  at 
something.  I  raised  my  gun  and  fired  a  charge  of  hird-shot  at  him, 
not  thinking ;  it  peppered  him  and  maddened  him  so  that  he  gave  a 
leap  right  at  me,  when  I  remembered  the  rifle  and  fired  instantly. 
The  beast  dropped  dead  right  at  my  feet." 

"  How  splendid  !  "  exclaimed  Mabel.  "  Now  the  whole  advent- 
ure   is  complete  !  " 

"  What  an  elegant  creature  !  "  said  Florence,  looking  sympatheti- 
cally at  the  supple,  graceful  form,  with  its  beautiful,  delicately 
marked  skin,  and  the  yellow  eyes,  glassy  in  death  and  no  longer 
fierce.     "  The  poor  thing  !  " 

"  Suppose  the  'poor  thing'  had  jumped  at  you  in  the  cave,"  said 
Eliot  with  a  laugh.  "  I  am  afraid  that  it  is  a  waste  of  sympathy  to 
expend  it  upon  tigers." 

The  train  started  and  shortly  passed  through  a  tunnel  and  out 
of  the  last  mountain  gorge.  The  great  plain  of  the  coast  stretched 
ocean-like  before  them,  covered  with  a  forest  which,  with  its  varied 
tints  of  foliage,  looked  much  like  a  New  England  woodland  in  spring- 
time. As  was  the  case  with  their  previous  descents  to  lower  levels 
they  went  along  the  precipitous  face  of  the  mountain,  gradually  ap- 
proaching the  even  ground  of  the  plain. 

"  We  are  getting  near  the  great  Choy  cave,"  said  Mr.  McCotter, 
while  they  were  still  descending,  and  at  his  suggestion  they  all  went 
out  onto  the  "  quarter-deck."  "  Now  look  down  at  the  track.  This 
bridge  is  built  directly  across  the  '  skylight '  of  the  cave." 

As  they  were  passing  over  a  substantial  iron  bridge,  the  train 
movino-  slowly,  suddenly  there  yawned  beneath  them  a  deep,  pit-like 


238  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

chasm.  Far  beloAv,  in  the  shady  abyss,  they  saw  the  glinting  of  a 
stream  rushing  rapidly  over  the  rocks.  "  It  is  two  hundred  and  five 
feet  from  the  bridge  down  to  the  water  there,"  said  Mr.  McCotter. 
"  Just  back  of  those  rapids  the  water  in  the  cave  is  deep  and  still,  and 
reaches  back  a  long  ways,  covering  the  floor  to  a  great  depth  —  over 
fifty  feet,  at  least,  so  that  Bunker  Hill  monument,  which  is  two 
hundred  feet  high,  could  be  stood  upright  in  the  chamber  with 
plenty  of  room  to  spare  between  its  top  and  the  roof." 

The  train  stopped  and  they  walked  back  to  the  bridge,  through 
the  open-work  of  which  they  peered  down  into  the  dizzy  depths. 
From  the  side  of  the  track  the  mountain  side  was  an  almost  perpen- 
dicular wall  of  rock  down  to  the  plain,  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  below.  The  Choy  river  came  tumbling  out  of  the  cave  in  a 
lively  cascade  and  then  meandered  briskly  off  into  the  plain.  The 
young  men  lost  no  time  in  descending  into  the  cave  to  enjoy  the 
morning  bath  they  had  been  promised  there.  The  ladies  wandered 
up  and  down  the  track,  enjoying  the  grand  prospect  and  gathering  the 
wild-Howers  which  they  found  growing  in  great  profusion.  Among 
them  were  two  beautiful  kinds  of  the  passion-flower,  one  small  and 
delicate,  with  stems  and  sepals  moss-covered,  like  the  moss  rose. 

Mr.  Brinkley  accompanied  the  young  men  down  the  steep  path 
over  the  rocks  in  the  face  of  the  precipice  to  an  upper  entrance  to 
the  cave,  something  more  than  half  way  to  the  bottom.  The 
chamber  where  they  entered  was  partly  filled  with  loose  rock  that 
had  been  blasted  away  in  the  construction  of  the  railroad,  and  Mr. 
Brinkley  decided  not  to  venture  his  considerable  weight  down  the 
uncomfortable  slope,  but  content  himself  with  a  survey  from  above, 
where  there  was  a  good  view  over  the  interior. 


THE    CRUISK    OF    A    LANl 


239 


The  cave  was  composed  of  two  adjacent  chambers,  narrow  and 
lofty,  soinetliing-  in  the  style  of  a  cathedral  with  a  double  nave.  The 
farther  chamber  ran  back  into  the  mountain  for  some  distance,  and 
the  two  were  connected  by  a  broad,  high  arch,  resembling  that  of  a 
theatre  proscenium,  though  grandly  irregular  in  outline. 

The  young  fellows  were  soon  in  the  Avater,  and  the  vaulted 
ceilings  resounded  with  their  merry  cries  as  they  sported  about. 
The  water  was  crystal  clear  and  of  a  rare  azure  hue,  through  which 
the  gleam  of  their  white  bodies  had  a  strangely  pallid  and  unearthly 
effect,  in  contrast  with  the  dark  transluc-ence  about  them. 

"  It  seems  as  if  this  were  some  ancient  abandoned  cathedral  con- 
verted into  a  grand  swimming-bath,"  said  Eliot.  "  But  isn't  it  de- 
licious !  The  temperature  of  the  water  is  perfect ;  Ave  could  stay  in 
here  all  day  without  fear  of  a  chill !  " 

"  I,  for  one,"  shouted  Harry,  "  am  ready  to  turn  merman  on  the 
spot  and  take  up  my  permanent  residence  in  Choy  cave ! " 

"  How  remarkably  buoyant  this  water  is  !  "  remarked  Ignacio. 

"  It  strikes  me  as  being  even  more  so  than  salt  water.  I  can't 
account  for  fresh  water  having  such  a  property,"  said  Eliot. 

"  Some  of  the  boys,"  said  Mr.  McCotter,  "  think  that  it  is  jirol)- 
ably  due  to  the  force  of  the  water  as  it  somehow  comes  welling  up 
from  below,  and  so  having  a  greater  sustaining  power." 

"  Isn't  it  because  it  perhaps  carries  in  solution  a  large  amount  of 
lime,  or  other  minerals,  just  as  salt  gives  the  water  of  the  ocean  its 
density  ?  "  asked  Harry. 

"  I  shouldn't  wonder  if  you  had  struck  the  true  reason,  Harry," 
said  Eliot.  "  As  all  these  mountains  are  limestones,  this  water  must 
certainly  carry  a  large  amount  of  linu'  in  solution,  and  it  would 
naturally  have  such  an  effect." 


240  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

"  Do  you  know  there  is  a  second  story  to  this  cave,  in  back 
there  ?  "  said  Mr.  McCotter.  "  One  time  a  number  o£  the  railroad 
men  were  up  here  and  while  Mr.  Whorf  was  looking-  around  up  the 
mountain,  the  rest  of  them  went  in  swimming  here  in  the  Choy. 
Mr.  Whorf  and  his  party  found  the  entrance  of  another  cave  up 
there,  and  went  in  to  explore  it.  They  saw  that  at  one  end  it  fell 
away  into  a  dark  pit  of  unknown  depth,  and  they  began  to  throw 
rocks  down  into  it  to  see  how  far  it  went.  The  rocks  went  rolling 
and  crashing  down,  Avhen  suddenly  their  blood  was  ahnost  frozen  in 
their  veins  and  their  hair  fairly  stood  on  end  at  the  sound  of  a  suc- 
cession of  piercing  yells  of  the  most  frantic  and  panic-stricken  de- 
scription. A  Mexican  servant  with  them  dropped  on  his  knees  with 
terror,  and  for  a  moment  they  were  prepared  to  believe  in  the  exist- 
ence of  tlie  gnomes  that  are  said  to  inhabit  the  crevices  of  the  earth. 
They  had  sent  their  shower  of  rocks  down  among  the  swimmers 
here,  who  were  naturally  terribly  frightened,  but  fortunately  no  one 
was  hurt." 

Out  of  the  water,  in  the  back  part  of  the  cave,  there  rose  a  pin- 
nacle to  a  height  of  something  like  twenty  feet,  looking,  in  that 
position,  like  a  pulpit.  Its  face  was  nearly  perpendicidar,  and  natu- 
ral steps  in  the  rear  made  its  top  accessible. 

"  What  a  place  for  a  dive !  "  cried  Eliot,  and  the  swimmers  made 
for  it. 

With  one  of  the  young  men  poised  like  a  statue  on  the  peak, 
ready  for  a  plunge,  some  clambering  up  the  sides  or  grouped  on  its 
sloping  flanks,  and  others  in  the  water  and  clinging  to  its  base,  the 
scene  was  a  subject  for  a  sc-ulptor.  It  seemed  like  the  realization  of 
some  imagined  scene  from  classic  mythology. 


THE    CRXTISE    OF    A    I.AND-YAOHT.  241 

The  time  for  them  to  leave  seemed  to  come  all  too  soon,  although 
they  had  been  for  over  an  hour  in  the  water.  The  prolonged  whistle 
of  the  locomotive,  sounding  strangely  down  from  above,  warned 
them  that  the  train  was  ready  to  start,  and  brought  them  back  into 
the  nineteenth  century  from  the  days  of  ancient  Greece,  in  which 
for  the  moment  they  were  living. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 


A    VISIT    TO    ANCIENT    RUINS. AT    TAMPICO. 


H' 


fOW  about  that  ancient  ruined  city  that 
Mr.  Whorf  tokl  us  about?"  asked 
Mr.  Brinkley  at  dinner  time,  as  they  were 
on  their  way  across  the  plains,  now  open 
and  almost  prairie-like,  with  island-like 
clumps  of  trees  here  and  there.  There 
was  no  dust,  the  windows  were  all  open, 
and  though  the  heat  was  like  that  of  July, 
the  motion  of  the  train  made  a  comforta- 
ble breeze. 

"  The  Aztec  city  at  Kilometer  twenty -one  ?  We  will  stop  and 
see  it  if  you  like,"  said  Mr.  McCotter. 

"  By  all  means  let  us  do  it,"  .said  Mr.  Brinkley.  "  We  must  not 
miss  an  opportunity  like  that.  It  isn't  every  railway  that  runs  past 
a  ruined  city  of  untold  antiquity." 

The  train  came  to  a  stop  in  a  thickly  wooded  region  and  they 
all  got  out.  Mr.  McCotter  led  the  way  to  a  path  that  ran  into  the 
forest,  and  they  followed  it  along  gradually  rising  ground.  "  The 
men  cutout  the  underbrusli  along  here  with  their  machetes  for  Mr. 
Whorf's  party  the  other  day,  so  we  shall  have  a  clear  passage.  ( )tli(M- 
wise  we  should  be  likely  to  get  completely  covered  with  pinolillas," 
said  Mr.  McCotter. 

"  Pinolillas  ?  "  asked  Harrv. 


THE    CUUISSK    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


243 


"  Little  ticks  aliout  tlie  size  of  a  pin's  head.  There  are  milUons 
of  them  oil  the  hushes  in  this  country.  They  transfer  themselves  to 
you  and  cling  to  your  skin  and  hite.  They  are  not  dangerous,  but 
fearfully  annoying-.  We  shall  prol)al)ly  see  as  much  of  them  as  we 
care  to." 

"■  Well,  pinohllas  or  no  pinolillas,  I  am  going  to  see  that  city," 
said  Florence.     And  that  was  the  unanimous  .sentiment. 

The  woodland,  casually  regarded,  had  little  to  distinguish  it  from 
a  New  England  forest  of  deciduous  trees.  Harry  said  it  reminded 
him  of  the  tune  when  he  went  with  Mr.  Hunt  to  see  the  ancient 
wolf-pits  in  the  Lynn  woods.  There  was  one  marked  feature,  how- 
ever, that  told  them  they  were  not  in  New  England,  and  that  was 
the  low  plant,  profusely  covering  the  ground  with  its  clusters  of  stifP 
daggei--shaped  leaves  like  the  pine-apple.  The  outer  leaves  of  each 
plant  Avere  green,  and  the  inner  ones  a  vivid  vermillion,  like  the 
most  brilliant  autiunnal  foliage.  The  plants  bore  their  fruit  on  a 
spike-like  stalk,  in  the  shape  of  lemon-colored  balls,  about  the  size  of 
a  plum.  Harry  asked  a  Mexican  who  had  been  sent  to  accompany 
them  from  the  railroad  section-house  in  the  neighborhood  what  they 
were,  and  was  told  that  they  were  called  "  guarapes ; "  they  were 
good  to  eat,  only  he  must  be  careful  not  to  eat  anything  but  the 
pulp,  or  his  mouth  would  be  filled  with  prickles.  Harry  tasted  one 
and  found  it  delicious,  so  he  and  Pablo  cut  a  stalk  and  had  a  feast 
of  the  sweet,  juicy,  rich-flavored  pulp.  But,  after  all,  their  tongues 
began  to  feel  as  if  they  had  been  eating  the  outside  part  of  a  pine- 
apple, and  that  evening  at  supper,  when  they  went  to  drink  their 
coffee,  in  the  place  of  taste  they  felt  the  sensation  of  drinking 
millions  of  minute  needles  in  liciuid  form! 


244  THE    CRUISE    OF   A    LAND-YACHT. 

They  came  upon  the  first  vestige  of  the  ruins  at  a  point  where 
the  path  began  to  ascend  a  considerable  slope.  The  lines  of  a  walled 
trench,  like  the  ditch  of  a  fort,  were  very  plainly  to  be  traced,  and 
there  lay  prostrate  on  the  ground  a  huge  stone  block,  nicely  hewii, 
and  having  a  rude  semblance  to  a  human  face.  Farther  uj)  the  hiU 
they  came  to  numerous  small  pyramids,  standing  in  irregular  lines 
that  went  on  into  the  forest  indefinitely.  These  pyramids  were 
truncated ;  that  is,  they  Avere  not  continued  to  an  apex,  but  about 
twelve  or  fifteen  feet  from  the  ground  their-  steep  slopes  terminated 
in  a  level  space.  They  were  faced  with  weU-hewn  slabs  of  stone,  form- 
ing a  shell  that  enclosed  an  interior  of  earth,  ashes,  and  broken  pottery, 
as  was  shown  in  the  case  of  one  that  had  been  partially  excavated. 
The  pyramids  were  well  overgrown  with  shrubbery  and  trees.  The 
young  folk's  set  about  industriously  grubbing  in  the  excavated  place, 
and  were  rewarded  by  finding  numerous  fi-agments  of  decorated 
pottery  and  some  little  figurines  of  terra  cotta.  At  one  place  there 
was  a  large  square  platform  of  stone,  three  or  four  feet  high,  and  it 
Avas  conjectured  that  this  was  the  site  of  a  temple,  while  the  pyramids 
were  the  sites  of  the  ordinary  dwellings  of  the  people,  built  of  reeds 
or  wood.  "  This  ridge  is  covered  with  these  structures  for  several 
miles,"  said  Mr.  McCotter.  "  It  appears  to  have  been  a  large  city 
in  the  ancient  days.  There  is  considerable  carved  stone  among  the 
ruins.  At  a  corner  of  this  stone  platform  there  was  a  handsomely 
carved  head,  but  it  was  carried  ofp  by  one  of  our  jjarties." 

"  How  instructive  it  would  be  if  Gushing  and  Bandelier  could 
only  be  with  us  now !  "  said  Mr.  Brinkley.  "  Two  such  iiion  to- 
gether could  tell  us  a  great  deal  about  the  past  of  this  place.  I 
wonder  what  kind  of  people  they  were !  " 


THK    CRUISE    OF   A    LAND-YACHT.  24:5 

"  Of  course  it  is  called  an  '  Aztec  city  '  only  to  indicate  that  it  is 
ancient,"  said  Eliot.  "  The  Aztecs  lived  on  the  table-land,  you 
know,  and  the  people  here  on  the  coast  were  probably  ({uite  a  differ- 
ent race.  Very  likely  these  people  here  were  more  like  the  Mayas  of 
Yucatan.  Today  the  great  bulk  of  the  population  of  Mexico  lives 
on  the  table-land,  and  the  coast  regions  are  sparsely  populated.  It 
is  generally  supposed  that,  for  the  development  of  energetic  and  in- 
dustrious qualities,  men  must  live  in  a  more  temperate  climate  ;  that 
here  on  the  coast  they  are  inevitably  listless  and  indolent.  That 
certainly  seems  to  be  the  case  to-day,  but  in  former  times  there  was 
evidently  a  large  population  in  the  hot  countries  of  the  coast. 
Probably  it  was  a  race  naturally  fitted  to  work  under  such  conditions, 
for  the  building  of  these  extensive  cities  shows  that  they  must  have 
been  industrious,  and  the  magnificent  architecture  still  remaining 
from  the  ancient  civilization  of  the  Mayas  proves  that  that  race, 
though  living  in  the  hot  country,  must  have  been  much  more  ad- 
vanced than  the  Aztecs  of  the  temperate  table-land." 

"  We  ought  to  have  a  name  for  this  city.  Suppose  we  call  it 
Mayaville  !  "  suggested  Mabel,  with  a  laugh. 

"  0  horrors !  "  cried  Florence.  "  We  might  as  well  make  it 
Jacksonville,  or  Whorftown,  in  honor  of  our  friends,  and  done  with 
it!" 

"  We  must  have  a  good  name,  and  by  the  time  we  get  back  to 
Boston  perhaps  we  can  think  u[)  somctliing  nice-sounding  and  ap])r()- 
priate,"  said  Mrs.  Brinkley. 

On  their  return  to  the  train,  every  one  retired  to  make  a  careful 
search  for  pinolillas,  of  whose  presence  unmistakable  indications  were 
felt.     It  was  well  along  in  tlu'  afternoon  wlien  they  came  in  sight  of 


246  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAXD-YACHT. 

a  great  river.  Shortly  after  they  stopped  at  the  station  of  Tamos, 
near  the  junction  of  another  great  stream,  the  Tamesi,  with  the 
former,  which  was  the  Panuco,  the  river  near  the  mouth  of  which  lies 
the  city  of  Tampico.  Both  of  these  rivers  are  navigated  by  steam- 
boats far  uj-  into  the  interior,  for  a  distance  of  something  over  a 
hundred  miles. 

"  We  have  got  so  used  to  regarding  the  dry  interior  as  typical  of 
this  country  that  it  seems  strange  to  see  so  much  water  as  this  any- 
where in  Mexico,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley. 

"  There  is  no  dearth  of  water  in  this  part  of  the  country,  as  you 
may  see  when  I  tell  you  that  our  '  dry  season  '  is  still  at  its  height," 
said  Mr.  McCotter. 

"  I  only  wish  we  had  time  to  make  a  steamboat  trip  up  the 
Panuco,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley.  "  Mr.  Whorf  tells  me  the  scenery  is 
wonderfully  grand.  Some  time  I  mean  to  come  down  and  devote 
several  weeks  to  this  part  of  Mexico,  and  see  that  glorious  waterfall, 
the  Salto  de  Rascon,  and  the  grand  valleys  where  the  Panuco  winds 
down  through  the  mountains,  and  some  of  the  other  things  which  it 
is  now  so  tantalizing  to  hear  about." 

"  And  I  want  to  go  across  country  from  here  up  through  the 
Huastec-a  to  the  City  of  Mexico,  a  route  which  is  said  to  pass 
through  absolutely  the  very  finest  scenery  in  the  republic,"  said  Eliot. 

"  Me  too  !  "  said  Harry. 

'•  Ah,  the  thirst  for  Mexico  is  one  of  the  most  inveterate  of  appe- 
tites," said  Mr.  Brinkley,  laughing.  "  Once  accpiired  it  is  impossible 
to  break  it  off !  " 

"  Tamos  !  "  said  Eliot.  "  This  is  the  place  where  that  letter  was 
sent  that  Mr.  Whorf  told  me  about.     You  know  the  railway-shops 


THE    CRUISE    OF   A    LAND-YACHT. 


241 


are  here  at  ))resent,  and  one  day  a  letter  on  some  official  business  was 
written  at  the  headquarters  in  Tampico  to  be  taken  up  here  by  the 
train.  By  some  mistake  it  got  into  the  regular  mail  and  went  abroad 
—  without  any  stamp,  at  that.  In  the  course  of  I  don't  know  how 
many  months  —  considerably  over  a  year,  I  believe,  —  the  letter 
came  back,  having  been  all  round  the  world,  making  stops  in  dozens 
of  countries  in  about  every  conti- 
nent. It  was  dii-ected  simply  to  / 
'  So-and-So,  Tames,'  and  it  turned 
up  all  covered  with  Avriting :  '  Try 
China,'  '  Try  India,'  '  Try  Egypt,' 
'  Try  Hungary,'  '  Try  Australia,' 
etc.,  until  finally  there  appeared 
'  Try  Mexico  ! '  and  the  letter  came 
to  hand  at  its  intended  destination, 
with  five  cents  due  to  meet  the 
expense  of  its  adventurous  tour." 

"  That  shows  the  efficiency  of 
the  world's  postal  service  today," 

said  Mr.  Brinkley,  "  and  how  slight  is  the  risk  of  the  loss  of  a  letter. 
And  it  shows  the  practical  value  of  a  governmental  service.  If  the 
carrying  of  mails  had  been  entrusted  to  a  private  corporation,  what 
likelihood  would  there  have  been  of  that  letter  ever  reaching  its 
destination  ?  " 

The  train  rumbled  across  the  long  iron  dra\v-l)ridge  that  crossed 
the  Tamesi,  and  soon  drew  up  at  the  station  in  Tampico,  close  to  the 
water.  Harry's  eyes  sparkled  at  sight  of  the  sea-going  craft 
anchored  in   the  broad  stream  and  moored   to  the  banks.      Beside 


248  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

the  schooners  and  brigs  there  were  several  steamboats,  a  large  fleet 
of  lighters,  and  a  multitude  of  canoes — long  and  narrow,  and  many 
were  hollowed  out  of  the  single  trunks  of  enormous  trees.  The  pict- 
uresque city  rose  up  on  sloping  ground  from  the  river  side  —  a  sort 
of  island  in  the  dead  level  of  prairie-like  country  through  whicli  the 
river  coursed  between  the  flats. 

"  Tampico  is  evidently  quite  unlike  any  other  city  in  Mexico," 
said  Eliot,  as  they  looked  towards  the  town.  "  Its  architecture 
seems  like  a  mixture  of  Havana,  New  Orleans,  Quebec  and  Mexico 
—  with  just  a  dash  of  Kansas  City  thrown  in,  in  the  shape  of  those 
wooden  shanties." 

As  there  was  time  for  a  stroll  before  sunset,  they  all  went  out  to 
take  a  look  at  the  place.  "  You  might  know  the  sea  was  near,"  said 
Harry,  sniffing  the  moist  wind  blowing  in  from  the  Gulf  with  a  soft, 
velvety  touch  and  a  salty  flavor. 

"  It's  warm  enough,"  said  Florence,  "  but  how  refreshing.  By 
shutting  my  eyes  I  could  fancy  myself  at  Newport." 

"  How  gorgeous !  Why,  the  town  is  a  regular  bouquet  !  " 
exclaimed  Mabel,  looking  at  the  luies  of  blue,  and  pale  green, 
and  rose-phdv,  and  lake,  etc.,  that  covered  the  walls  of  the 
buildings." 

"  They've  just  been  painting  it  up  in  honor  of  the  railway  cele- 
bration, and  they've  let  themselves  loose  in  color.  White  paint  on 
the  walls  is  forbidden  here  by  law,  on  accotint  of  the  glare  it  makes 
in  the  heat,"  said  Mr.  McCotter. 

"  Then  thev'll  be  confiscating  the  Ariadne  for  lier  transgression. 
I  fear  !  "  cried  Mr.  Brinkley,  in  mock  alarm. 

"  Mira   los   cuervos !      Look   at   the    ravens !"  cxdainu'd    Pablo. 


THE    CHUISK    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  241) 

The  pavements   were   dotted   with   ravens  and   l)la(kl)Irds,  liopping 
about  and  chattering  in  a  Uvely  manner. 

"  They  are  our  scavengers,"  said  Mr.  McCotter.  "  Thi-y  are 
protected  by  law  and  nobody  harms  them." 

"  They  seem  to  have  them  in  place  of  the  zopelotes,  or  buzzards. 
Curious  there  are  no  bnzzards  here,  and  Vera  Cruz  is  full  of  them," 
said  Eliot. 

"  0  the  dear  little  creature  !  "  cried  Florence.  They  were  at  tlie 
waterside  near  the  great  market-house,  and  a  number  of  dugouts 
were  lying  in  the  canal-like  inlet  there.  In  the  stern  of  one  of  them 
a  pretty  little  Indian  boy  was  lying  asleep,  with  one  of  his  bare  legs 
dangling  over  the  side  and  his  foot  in  the  water.  While  tliey  were 
admiring  the  charming  picture  he  made,  their  laughing  comments 
aroused  him ;  lie  raised  liis  head  and  looked  at  them  a  moment  and 
then  lay  carelessly  back  and  dropped  to  sleep  again. 

"  Wouldn't  he  jump,  though,  if  a  big  fish  should  bite  his  toe  !  " 
remarked  Harry. 

Just  beyond  the  market  a  street  from  above  descended  to  the 
watei--side  by  a  broad  stau-way  of  .stone.  Strolling  about  the  town 
they  came  to  the  church  on  the  central  plaza.  It  Avas  a  plain  and 
insignificant  structure,  in  marked  contrast  with  the  elaborate  churches 
they  had  found  everywhere  else.  From  the  tower  they  had  a  sweep- 
ing view  over  the  country,  spreading  away  wide,  verdant  and  level 
into  the  misty  distance.  The  two  great  rivers  were  looped  in  broad 
silvery  bands  over  the  open  savan- 
nahs. In  nearly  every  direction 
there  were  large  lagoons  occupying 
almost  as  much  of  the  surface  as 
the  solid  ground.     Here  and  there 


250  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHl. 

groups  of  feathery  cocoanut-palins  stood  on  the  banks  of  the 
stream.  Down  the  river,  to  the  eastward,  was  a  range  of  high 
bhift's,  partially  cutting  off  the  view  of  the  Gulf  that  lay,  serenely 
blue,  reaching  oft'  to  its  straight  horizon  line. 

"  The  whole  country  seems  fairly  sloppy  with  water !  "  remarked 
Eliot. 

Walking  through  the  business  part  of  the  town  they  were 
amused  at  the  audacity  and  fearlessness  of  the  ravens,  as  they 
gathered  on  the  pavement,  noisily  chattering.  On  one  corner,  on 
the  sidewalk,  a  dog  lay  indolently  stretched  out  asleep,  after  the 
canine  fashion  universal  in  Mexico.  One  of  the  ravens  from  a  group 
close  by  hopped  onto  the  dog's  flank  and  stood  there  for  some  tune. 
The  dog  did  not  stir  ! 

"  Ah,  here  is  Captain  Kendrick,"  said  Mr.  McCotter,  and  he  pre- 
sented the  commodore  of  the  company's  fleet  of  lighters  to  the  party. 
The  captain  was  a  tyjjical  "  old  salt "  from  Cape  Cod,  whose  sands 
have  produced  one  of  the  finest  races  of  sailors  in  the  world. 

It  was  arranged  with  the  Captain  that  they  should  go  down  the 
river  and  out  to  the  bar  the  next  day  on  the  tug,  and  on  their  re- 
turn they  were  to  enjoy  a  fish  dinner  on  board,  with  a  crab  soup 
which,  it  was  warranted,  Avould  make  even  a  Delmonico  turn  green 
with  envy. 

The  next  morning  they  all  started  down  the  river  on  the  Oriiula, 
the  great  tug  —  all  except  Eliot,  who  declined  to  improve  tlic  op- 
portunity to  test  the  contractile  force  of  his  stomach  on  the  tum- 
bling seas  of  the  bar.  Harry  was  soon  engaged  in  intimate  converse 
with  Captain  Kendrick,  exchanging  reminiscences  of  the  New  Eng- 


sliorc  and    Iclliiit:-   tlic   C:i 


'P 


n 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  2.')3 

year  at  home,  in  return  for  a  o-ood  stock  of  information  about  the 
Mexican  coast. 

The  Pfinuco  pours  its  great  vohime  out  into  the  Gulf  so  steadily 
that  the  slight  rise  and  fall  which  the  tide  has  in  that  part  of  the 
world  affects  but  slightly  the  force  of  its  flow.  But  where  the  river 
current  dissipates  itself  in  the  salt  sea  the  waves  of  the  latter  heap 
up  the  loose  sands  in  a  great  bar  across  its  mouth.  The  bar  is 
passable  only  by  a  shallow,  tortuous,  and  constantly  shifting  channel. 
But  for  this  obstacle  to  navigation,  Tampico,  from  the  earliest  history 
of  the  Spanish  occupation  of  Mexico,  would  have  been  one  of  the 
greatest  ports  of  the  New  World,  for  the  river  itself,  with  its  great 
depth,  affords  fi'om  far  above  the  city  down  to  its  mouth  ample  and 
safe  shelter  for  hundreds  of  the  largest  ocean  steamships,  coidd  they 
only  cross  the  bar.  Taking  example  of  the  grand  work  of  Captain 
Eads  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  the  railway  company  was  now 
engaged  in  securing  this  invaluable  advantage  for  Tampico  by  the 
construction  of  jetties  out  over  the  bar  into  deep  water,  reaching 
from  the  shore  on  either  side  of  the  river  mouth  for  over  a  mile  off 
into  the  Gulf.  The  steady  wash  of  the  Panuco,  whose  volume  is 
greater  than  that  of  the  Mississippi  at  the  South  Pass,  would  scour 
out  the  channel  and  make  a  permanent  passage  across  the  bar,  deep 
enough  for  the  largest  vessels. 

The  trip  down  the  river  was  a  pleasant  one  of  something  like  six 
miles.  The  wind  was  blowing  steadily  from  the  eastward  and  when 
they  reached  the  Gulf  they  could  see  the  shallow  greenisii  stretch 
of  the  bar  before  them  covered  with  tossing  white  caps,  as  if  the 
mouth  of  the  stream  were  filled  with  a  set  of  savage,  glittering  teeth. 
The  tug  made  for  this  directly.     It  looked  as  if  there  were  no  piia- 


254  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

sage  across  the  threatening  barricade  of  breakers,  but  Harry  could 
see,  from  in  front  of  the  pilot-house,  where  he  stood,  that  there  were 
patches  of  smooth  water  amidst  the  foam-caps  here  and  there,  ap- 
parently detached,  but  in  reality  connected  and  forming  a  serpentine 
course  over  the  bar.  They  were  almost  in  the  midst  of  the  ^^4cked- 
looking  breakers,  which  were  tossing  angrily  on  both  the  port  and 
starboard  bows,  when  Captain  Kendrick  remarked  that  it  seemed 
hardly  prudent  to  venture  across  in  that  wind.  So  the  boat's  course 
was  changed,  and  in  a  moment  more  she  was  again  in  smooth  water 
and  headed  shoreward,  much  to  the  relief  of  one  of  the  young  ladies, 
as  well  as  of  Ignacio.  For,  in  the  minute  or  so  while  they  were 
tossing  on  the  inner  edge  of  the  bar,  both  Ignacio  and  Mabel  were 
visibly  affected  by  the  motion,  and  the  sympathetic  glances  of  mutual 
commiseration  that  they  cast  towards  each  other  caused  not  a  little 
amusement  to  Pablo  and  Harry,  for  the  younger  Mexican  showed  no 
signs  of  sea-sickness. 

"  You  are  getting  broken  in  for  Massachusetts  Bay  next  August 
in  first-class  shape,  Pablito,"  said  Harry. 

"  I  think  the  ancient  Visigoth  who  transmitted  his  physique  to 
Pablo  must  have  been  a  viking !  "  said  Mr.  Brinkley,  patting  the 
lad's  shoulder. 

They  came  to  anchor  off  the  northern  bank  of  the  river  mouth, 
where  the  headquarters  of  the  harbor-inqjrovement  works  had  been 
established.  The  work  on  the  jetties  had  only  just  i)egun.  A  row- 
boat  put  off  and  in  it  they  all  went  ashore.  They  were  surjirised  to 
be  met  on  the  beach  by  Eliot,  who  had  driven  down  from  the  town 
with  Colonel  Wrotnosky,  the  chief  engineer  of  the  harbor  works,  in 
the  details  of  which,  Eliot,  as  an  engineer,  was  deeply  interested. 


THE    CRUISE    OP    A    LANB-YACHT.  255 

The  hoys  strolled  off  along  the  heach,  which  was  bordered  by 
sand-dunes  and  seemed  little  different  from  a  beach  of  the  Northern 
coast  in  its  general  appearance,  save  for  the  luxuriant  and  brilliant 
beach  peas,  primrose  and  convolvulus  mantling  the  sand  at  the  base 
of  the  dunes.  Roaming  off  for  some  distance  to  the  northward  of 
the  tall,  skeleton-like  iron  lighthouse  tower,  Harry  took  advantage 
of  the  opportunity  to  initiate  Pablo  into  the  sport  of  surf-bathing, 
which  they  foimd  delightful  in  the  warm  salt  water,  although  they 
did  not  venture  out  to  any  depth,  as  Captain  Kendrick  had  warned 
them  of  the  big  and  hungry  sharks  that  lay  in  wait  off  the  shore. 

The  huge  trunk  of  a  great  dead  cedar  with  fantastically  gnarled 
branches,  that  had  been  tossed  up  by  the  waves,  was  lying  on  the 
shore,  close  to  the  water.  Three  young  Mexican  peones  were  sitting 
on  the  trunk  and  watching  the  boys  sporting  in  the  water.  As  they 
scampered  past  the  tree,  splashing  in  the  edge  of  the  surf,  Pablo 
started  back  in  affright.  "  Mira  !  Mira  !  la  culebra  !  "  (Look  !  look  ! 
the  snake  !)  he  shouted. 

There,  stretched  out  on  one  of  the  branches  below,  near  the  sand, 
in  a  snug  recess,  and  hardly  distinguishable  from  the  tree  in  color, 
lay  the  thick  folds  of  a  snake,  evinently  enjoying  a  siesta.  To 
Harry's  startled  gaze  it  seemed  as  big  as  a  boa  constrictor.  The 
three  peones  leaped  from  their  perch  in  quick  alarm  at  Pablo's  words. 
One  of  them,  siezing  a  long  stick  of  driftwood  that  lay  on  the  beach 
close  by,  approached  cautiously  and  gave  a  poke  at  his  snakeship, 
who,  with  an  angry  hiss  and  an  agile  wriggle,  disappeared  beneath 
the  trunk.  He  was  soon  discovered,  gliding  up  out  of  the  water 
into  which  he  had  escaped,  making  for  the  tree  again,  beneath  which 
he  once  more  vanished.      Thev  had  all  armed  themselves  with  stakes 


256  THE    CKUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

by  this  time,  and  by  dint  of  much  thrusting  about,  they  finally  suc- 
ceeded in  dislodging  and  slaying  the  snake,  which  after  all  proved 
to  be  only  about  four  feet  long,  though  very  thick.  "  Pooh  !  I  have 
seen  black-snakes  bigger  than  that  at  home !  "  said  Harry,  con- 
temptuously. But,  nevertheless,  he  took  the  rejitile  by  the  tail  when 
they  returned  to  the  boat,  and  triumphantly  exhibited  it  as  evidence 
of  their  adventure. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

THE     BRIUCE     OF     GOD. 

T^HAT  evening  they  bade  good-bye  to  Tampico.  Morning-  found 
■^  them  again  ascending  the  wonderful  slopes  of  the  valley  where 
the  great  opening  of  the  Tamosopo  caiion  showed  magnificently  be- 
fore them  in  the  sublime  mountain  wall.  "  There  is  one  more  sight 
for  you  that  has  been  .saved  for  the  return,  just  to  show  that  you 
have  by  no  means  exhausted  the  wonders  of  this  country,"  said  Mr. 
McCotter,  who  was  accompanying  them  as  far  as  the  end  of  his 
division,  at  Cardenas. 

"  And  tliat  is  the  Puente  de  Di()s,  I  suppose,"  .said  Eliot. 

"The  Bridge  of  God  —  it  ought  to  be  something  grand  to  be 
worthy  of  that  name,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley. 

"  Any  chance  for  a  swim  there  ?  "  asked  Harry. 

"  Just  wait  and  see  !  "  said  Mr.  McCotter,  significantly. 

"  Well  —  we  can't  expect  anything  else  to  come  up  to  the  Choy 
cave  in  that  line  !  "  remarked  Harry,  doubtingly. 

The  train  came  to  a  halt  in  the  grand  avenue  made  by  the  rail- 
wav  tlirough  the  luxuriant  forest  of  the  cafetal,  and  they  all  entered 
ujjon  a  path  that  led  through  the  superb  tropical  gro\vth.  The  trees 
were  fairly  swathed  with  orchids,  and  gigantic  creepers  united  their 
branches  in  a  tangled  and  fantastic  netw(n-k.  The  ground  was  cai- 
peted  with  excpiisite  ferns,  and  the  coffee  trees  that  had  been  planted 
all  around  gave  no  aspect  of  cultivation  to  the  scene.      They  had  an 


258  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 

overawed  and  juvenile  air  as  they  grew  slenderly  in  the  shade  of 
their  huge  forest  brothers.  The  pleasant  rushing  music  of  falling 
water  grew  more  distinct  as  they  advanced.  They  descended 
cautiously  a  steep  slope,  that  was  slipjjery  with  the  moist  and  heavy 
black  soil.  At  its  foot  they  came  to  the  edge  of  the  stream  and 
paused  in  awe-struck  ecstasy  at  the  spectacle  before  them.  They 
stood  on  an  irregular  shelf  of  rock  and  below  was  a  large  })()ol 
of  a  marvelous  azure  hue.  Facing  them  a  cliff  rose  from  the  water 
in  an  uneven  wall,  its  front  tapestried  with  a  dense  matting  of 
ferns  and  moss.  Over  this  vines  were  gracefully  festooned,  and  the 
rich  green  surface  was  starred  Avith 
l)rilliant  flowers.  The  cliff  was 
crowned  vnth  a  heavy  bank  of  glossy- 
leaved  trees.  A  large  water-fall 
came  tumbling  into  the  pool  at  one 
end,  intensifying  the  luminous  azure 
of  the  water  with  the  contrast  of  its 

snowy  foam.      All  over  the  face  of 

the  cliff  there  came  tinkling  down  a 
shower  of  fine  streams,  making  a  lace-like  aqueous  embroidery  over 
the  background  of   velvety  green. 

The  mineral  held  in  solution  by  the  trickling  water  bad  united 
with  the  sponge-like  mass  of  the  roots  of  shrubs  and  plants  and  bad 
formed  smooth,  sloping  projections  of  a  strange-looking  stony  suli- 
stance,  brownish  in  hue,  that  was  botli  mineral  and  veget:il)lc  in 
composition.  Over  the  irregular,  ragged  edges  of  tlu-se  grotto-bke 
roofs  the  fine  streams  came  ])ouring.  It  was  the  niiucral  ((.ntaui.M]  ui 
the  water  that  gave  it  its   bluish  color,  and  sucii  w.itcr  is    known  ui 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT. 


259 


Mexico    by    the    specific    name    of    cujua    azul,    or    "blue    water." 

"  Faii-yland  !  Enchantment !  This  realizes  the  magic  of  those 
■words  !  I  would  never  have  dreamed  that  the  world  could  anywhere 
show  a  spectacle  of  such  exquisite  beauty  as  this!"  murmured  Mabel, 
after  they  had  contemplated  the  scene  in  silence  for  several  minutes. 

"  And  the  music  of  the  water !  "  said  Mrs.  Brinkley,  after  an- 
other pause.  "The  cadence  seems  like  that  of  a  never-eiuling 
symphony  !  The  delicate  treble  of  those  fine  descending  liquid 
lines  makes  a  constant  accompaniment  to  the  fidl  deep  song  of  the 
cascade.  We  can  fancy  them  the  strings  of  a  harp,  swept  by  the 
hand  of  nature." 

"  But  where  is  the  bridge  ?  "  asked  Harry. 

"  Just  before  us,"  said  Mr.  McCotter.  "  But  we  cannot  see 
where  the  water  flows  under  it,  so  this  pool  ap})ears  to  be  land- 
locked." 

The  young  men  followed  Mr.  McCotter's  guidance  across  the 
bridge,  while  Mr.  Brinkley  remained  behind  with  the  ladies.  Mabel 
had  brought  her  water-colors  and  she  seated  herself  near  the  edge 
of  the  pool  to  make  a  sketch  of  the  scene. 

A  roundabout  way  took  the  young  men  down  to  the  stream 
below  the  bridge,  and  they  were  soon  in  the  water,  which  they  found 
of  the  same  delicious  temperature  and  satiny  touch  as  in  the  Choy 
cave.  Wading  through  swift  rapids,  against  Avhich  they  could 
hardly  make  their  Avay  the  current  was  so  strong,  they  found  a  deep 
still  place  above.  The  water  had  the  same  sustaining  power,  also, 
that  they  had  observed  in  the  Choy  cave.  In  the  rocky  wall  rising 
out  of  the  calm  blueness  of  the  stream  there  yawned  the  dark  mouth  of  a 
cavern,  and  directlv  into  its  tunnel-like  space  they  swam.      Some  birds 


2G0  THE  CRUISE  OF  A  LAND-YACHT. 

above  them  raised  a  shrill  protest  at  their  intrusion,  and  their  noise  made 
the  mild  gloom  of  the  place  seem  a  trifle  uncanny.  Suddenly  a  aoh, 
mysterious  bluish  twilight  began  to  diffuse  itself  through  the  ob- 
scurity. Then,  almost  before  they  had  time  to  think  Avhence  might 
proceed  so  strange  a  dawning,  they  found  themselves  laved  by  a 
luminous  flood ;  all  around  them  and  beneath  them  the  crystalline 
water  was  fifled  with  an  intense  azure  radiance,  like  that  of  some 
wondrous  jewel  that  steadily  glows  with  its  own  light.  The  light 
proceeded  from  below,  and  it  seemed  as  if  they  were  floating  in  the 
ambient  ether  of  limitless  space.  To  Harry  it  was  the  most  wonder- 
ful sensation  of  his  life,  and  for  the  moment  he  felt  as  if  he  had 
suddenly  been  removed  far  from  this  world  and  had  entered  into  the 
wholly  new  experience  of  another  existence.  "  If  I  should  really 
die  I  wonder  if  it  would  seem  anything  like  this !  "  was  the  thought 
that  passed  through  his  mind. 

"  Que  milagro ! "  said  Pablo,  who  was  swimming  at  his  side, 
speaking  softly ;  "  Somos  como  los  angeles  flotando  en  el  cielo  !  "  — 
"  What  a  miracle !     We  are  like  the  angels,  floating  in  the  sky  !  " 

"  In  heaven,  yes  !  and  there  is  the  portal !  "  said  Eliot. 

Indeed,  as  they  turned  a  corner  where  the  irregular  angle  of  the 
rock  made  a  dark,  uneven  line  sharply  distinct  down  into  the  heaven- 
like dei)ths,  the  noble  o])cning  of  a  great  arch  revealed  itself  before 
them.  It  was  the  arch  of  the  Bridge  of  God,  submerged  in  the 
water,  and  hidden  on  the  side  where  they  had  first  conic  upon  the 
stream.  It  was  through  this  arch  that  there  poured  into  the  cavern 
all  that  flood  of  wondrous  light,  proceeding  from  the  pool  above. 

"  The  Puente  de  Dios  !  Rightly  is  it  named,  giving  entrance 
into  this  heaven  !  "  said  Ignacio. 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LANI 


2(31 


Along  the  sides  of  the  cavern  the  irreguhxr  walls  presented  be- 
neath the  surface  convenient  shelves  here  and  there,  where  they 
could  stand  and  rest,  ^\•ith  the  water  up  to  their  necks.  In  the  wall 
just  above  the  arch,  and  a  little  to  one  side,  above  the  surface  of  the  water 
there  was  an  opening  that  made  a  convenient  -window  looking  out  upon 
the  fairy  pool.  Harry  peered  through  this,  and  saw  Mabel  sitting 
on  the  bank  opposite,  engrossed  in  her  sketching.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Brmklev  and  Florence  were  resting  on  the  rocks  towards  the  cas- 
cade, lookmg  on  at  the  scene  as  if  they  could  never  get  their  fill  of 
its  beauty.  "  Just  look  out  of  this  window,  Nacho  !  "  said  Harry, 
as  the  young  Mexican  came  swimming  up.  And,  as  Ignacio's  face 
appeared  at  the  opening,  Harry  mischievously  called  "  Hoo-hoo  !  " 
from  over  his  shoulder,  in  a  bird-like  tone.  As  Mabel  looked  up 
and  recognized  the  apparition  in  pleased  surprise,  Ignacio  drew  back 
in  dismay,  and  Harry  laughed  :  "  Don't  be  afraid,  Nacho  !  She  can 
only  see  your  face  !  " 

On  their  way  back  through  the  cafetal  Eliot  said  :  "  What  won- 
derful experiences  those  two  have  been  :  The  Choy  cave  and  the 
Puente  de  Diem.  In  the  Choy  cave  we  went  far  back  into  the  ages 
of  dim  antiquity  and  descended  to  live  for  two  hours  among  the  shades 
of  the  Grecian  underworld.  The  Bridge  of  God  has  carried  us  for- 
ward, and  given  us  two  hours  of  celestial  paradise !  " 

"When  the  train  had  started,  and  they  were  all  enjoying  again  the 
wonderful  scenery  of  the  ascent  to  the  Tamasopo,  Harry  exclaimed : 
"  I  wonder  if  there  were  any  snakes  in  those  woods !  " 

"  Mercy  !  I  wonder  if  there  were  !  "  cried  Florence,  vnih  a  sort 
of  retrospective  terror  in  her  tone.  "  The  idea  never  entered  my 
head  !  If  it  had,  I  might  have  been  frightened  lialf  to  death.  But 
I  didn't  see  a  living  creature,  except  the  birds." 


262  THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND- YACHT. 

"  I've  only  seen  one  snake  in  Mexico,"  said  Harry.  "  And  one 
scorpion,  but  not  a  centipede  or  a  tarantula.  I  don't  think  there  is 
much  to  l)e  afraid  of  in  the  venemous  things  of  the  tropics,  after 
all !  ■' 

"  We  have  been  remarkably  free  from  startling  adventures  for  a 
long  voyage  like  ours,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley. 

"  Yes  —  "  said  Eliot ;  "  Let  me  see  —  The  most  exciting  thing 
was  that  runaway  engine.  Then  Sam  got  scared  by  an  alligator, 
and  we  all  came  near  seeing  a  live  tiger,  and  Harry  and  Pablo  helped 
kill  a  snake.     That's  all !  " 

The  next  morning  they  were  in  San  Luis  Potosv.  Here  Ignacio 
and  Pablo  were  to  leave  them,  returning  to  the  capital  by  way  of 
the  Mexican  National  Railroad.  For  they  had  planned  to  stop  over 
at  Dolores  Hidalgo,  the  Mexican  Mount  Vernon,  to  see  the  home 
and  the  relics  of  the  father  of  their  country.  It  was  at  Dolores  that 
Hidalgo,  the  patriot  priest,  gave  the  signal  for  the  struggle  for  the 
independence  of  Mexico.  As  the  time  approached  for  parting, 
Harry  almost  laughed  to  see  the  downcast  look  that  Ignacio  wore. 
"  Come  in  here  a  minute,  Nacho  !  "  he  called  from  the  dining-room 
doorway. 

Ignacio  followed,  and  Harry,  taking  hiin  to  the  sofa  of  his  berth, 
mysteriously  drew  the  curtains  and  said  :  "  Look  here,  old  boy,  you 
are  looking  so  blue  I  th<jught  I  might  cheer  you  up  a  bit !  Here  is 
something  I  found  among  Mabel's  sketches." 

As  Ignacio's  glance  fell  upon  the  watercolor  that  Hanv  licld  In- 
fore  him  his  eyes  opened  wide,  a  happy  light  caint'  into  tliciu.  and 
his  lips  jiarted  in  a  joyous  smile.  Mabel's  sketch  was  one  slic  liad 
made  the  day  before  at  tiie  Puente  de  Di()S.      Its  subject  was  that 


THE    CRUISE    OF    A    LAND-YACHT.  263 

window  looking-  out  from  the  cavern  upon  the  faii-y  pool.  Framed 
by  ferns  and  half  curtained  by  drooping  vines,  Ignacio  was  con- 
fronted by  his  own  brown,  handsome  face,  his. large  dark  eyes  peel- 
ing out  like  those  of  a  young  faun,  and  the  thick  clusters  of  his 
blue-black  hair  hanging  low  over  his  forehead,  wet  from  the  ])lunge 
from  which  he  had  just  risen. 

"  She  must  carry  somebody's  looks  pretty  closely  in  mind  to  be 
able  to  do  a  portrait  like  that  from  memory  !  "  remarked  Harry, 
with  significant  stress. 

"  Truly  the  Bridge  of  God  has  borne  me  into  heaven  !  "  Ignacio 
murmured. 

It  was  a  happy  face  that  the  young  Mexican  wore  when  be  and 
Pablo  stepped  out  upon  the  station  platform  just  before  the  Ariadne 
moved  away.  And  Mabel's  face  also  became  radiant  as  he  said, 
with  an  expressive  look,  "  When  Pablo  goes  North  to  school,  he  will 
travel  in  my  care." 

"  We  shall  all  be  delighted  to  welcome  you,"  said  Mr.  Brinkley, 
and  the  response  that  Ignacio  read  in  Mabel's  eyes  told  him  tiiat 
there  was  one  from  whom  a  particularly  cordial  reception  might  be 
looked  for. 

"  Good  bye  !  " 

"  Hasta  la  vista  !  " 

And  the  train  started. 

That  night,  as  they  were  speeding  northward  beyond  the  trojiics 
Harry  called  from  his  pillow  across  to  his  companion  :  "  Say  Eliot ! 
It  looks  as  if  you  were  going  to  have  a  Mexican  brother-in-law  !  " 

"  So  it  does  !      And  Nacho  is  a  splendid  fellow  !  " 

"  Haven't  we  had  a  good  time,  though  ?  " 


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